Despite court order of immediate payout, food stamp program in limbo after Trump administration orders recalculation of benefits

(Nov. 6) WASHINGTON – A week after two federal courts ordered the Trump administration to “immediately” pay food stamp benefits for November, none of the nation’s 42 million recipients, including 440,000 in Minnesota, have had any help and are likely to not receive it for weeks.

The blame for the delay in releasing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to low-income Americans can be laid at the door of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The agency has insisted that the federal shutdown has left its SNAP coffers empty and an emergency fund can only pay about half of the federal government’s obligations, about $8 billion, to fund the program for the month of November.

In addition, the USDA has told states to recalculate the payouts to each beneficiary, who would now receive half of their benefits. The USDA also told the states to reduce benefits for households with a certain level of income and at least one working member by an additional 30%.

That has frustrated states and imposed additional work on state agencies that administer the food stamp program (and in Minnesota, individual counties run SNAP).

“(The USDA) did not allow states to reduce benefits by a uniform percent,” Department of Children, Youth and Families Commissioner Tikki Brown said in a press conference this week.

Instead, because of the new income-based requirements, which were not mandated by Congress or the courts, states like Minnesota are forced to recode their eligibility systems – and ensure other safety net programs are not affected by the changes.

That will take states like Minnesota some time, said Brown and USDA officials this week, leaving food insecure Americans without any immediate assistance.  

SNAP benefits in Minnesota typically start at $298 a month for an individual, with increases depending on household size. If benefits are finally released to beneficiaries’ EBT cards, they will average $149 or less per individual.

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