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SNAP (Food Stamp) benefit changes - now requires work or job training requirement

JACKSON, Miss (WTVA)

Get a job or start training for one if you want to keep getting benefits.

That's the message to single adults receiving SNAP benefits.

It's a nationwide change.

The new work requirement applies to SNAP recipients between the ages of 18-49 who are able to work.

For many folks we asked, that seems like a fair request.

"I think it's a good idea. They should be made to at least try to work," Marilyn Ross, Mississippi resident, said.

There are 67,000 Mississippians who fall into that category right now.

But the Department of Human Services tells us they expect some will be able to file the new paperwork to show they have a job or are enrolled in job training.

"There are jobs out here. People say all the time they can't find a job and everywhere you go there are help wanted signs," Ross said.

The reason this is happening is because the stimulus package allowed for the work requirement to be suspended in many states.

But that part of the stimulus package has expired.

Executive director of the Mississippi Public Policy center Warren Yoder says thousands will be impacted.

"This will be a wave of people coming in asking for assistance saying what do I do?"

Yoder says it's not necessarily folks who aren't working at all.

"There are pretty big areas of the state that just haven't had the economic growth and young adults living there have a really difficult time finding even a half time job that will qualify them for this," Yoder said.

If recipients don't meet the work requirement, their benefits will be cut off after three months.


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