4 Groups at Risk of Losing SNAP Benefits in 2026

Millions of Americans rely on a monthly card that helps them buy groceries, but most people – even recipients – don’t fully understand what the program covers, who qualifies, or how dramatically the rules have changed in the past year. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP and formerly called food stamps, is the country’s largest federal food assistance program. For many households, it’s the thin line between a full refrigerator and an empty one.

What makes SNAP notable is its scope. It operates in every state, Washington D.C., and U.S. territories, reaching tens of millions of people who range from working families with modest incomes to seniors living on fixed Social Security payments to people between jobs. The benefits arrive on an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card each month, and recipients use it at authorized grocery stores and retailers much like a debit card.

But right now, SNAP is at the center of the biggest policy upheaval in its history. A sweeping federal law enacted in mid-2025 changed who qualifies, what recipients must do to keep their benefits, and how the entire program is funded. For four specific groups of Americans, these changes are not abstract policy debates – they represent a real and immediate risk of losing food assistance.

What SNAP Actually Covers

Before unpacking who is losing access, it helps to understand what SNAP actually pays for, because there are common misconceptions.

SNAP provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget so they can afford nutritious food essential to health and well-being. The benefits load monthly onto an EBT card, which works like a debit card at approved grocery stores, supermarkets, farmers’ markets, and some online retailers.

According to the USDA, eligible items include any food or food product for home use. A practical shorthand: if it has a “Nutrition Facts” label and you can eat it, you can generally buy it with SNAP – items with “Supplement Facts” labels usually don’t qualify.

The covered categories are broad. They include fruits and vegetables – fresh, frozen, canned, or dried – along with 100% fruit and vegetable juice. Meat, poultry, fish, dairy, breads, cereals, and most packaged snack foods are all covered. All baby food and infant formula are fully covered, including specialized formulas prescribed by doctors. SNAP online purchasing is currently available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with stores like Amazon and Walmart accepting EBT online – though delivery fees cannot be paid with SNAP benefits.

What SNAP does not cover is equally clear. Foods meant to be eaten immediately are not covered – this includes deli hot foods, rotisserie chicken, and hot pizza, though cold prepared foods like sandwiches may be eligible. Alcohol and tobacco cannot be purchased with SNAP, and neither can non-food items like cleaning supplies, paper products, toiletries, or cosmetics. Dietary supplements, over-the-counter medications, and prescription drugs are also excluded.

Benefit Amounts in 2026

Gross monthly income must generally be at or below 130% of the federal poverty line. For a family of three, 130% of the poverty line works out to approximately $2,888 per month, or about $34,656 per year. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) estimates the average SNAP benefit per person in fiscal year 2026 will be $188 per month, or $6.17 per day. The maximum benefit in 2026 for a family of three is $785 per month.

New State-Level Food Restrictions

The federal government has also given states new authority to limit what SNAP benefits can buy. As of March 2026, 22 states have received approval to limit what you can buy with SNAP benefits. The most commonly restricted items are sodas, energy drinks, and candy. In Indiana, shoppers can no longer use SNAP to buy soft drinks and candy; in Florida, SNAP recipients can no longer buy soda, energy drinks, candy, or prepared desserts. If you’re unsure whether your state has implemented restrictions, check directly with your local SNAP office or state agency.

The Law That Changed Everything

In July 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) into law. To partially offset the cost of trillions of dollars in tax cuts, the legislation includes $186 billion in cuts to SNAP. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), this represents the largest cut to food assistance in history.

The effects were swift. SNAP participation nationwide fell by more than 3 million people between the law’s July 2025 enactment and January 2026, and it has not tracked with the unemployment rate, which has remained relatively stable over the same period.

The policy change that will most severely undercut SNAP’s role is the transfer, for the first time, of significant program costs from the federal government onto states. These structural changes will result in the program being substantially and detrimentally less responsive to poor economic conditions. Currently, the federal government pays 100% of SNAP benefit costs. Beginning in fiscal year 2028, states with SNAP payment error rates above 6 percent will have to pay 5 to 15 percent of SNAP benefits, with matching amounts increasing with higher error rates. Only eight states reported an error rate below 6 percent in fiscal year 2024.

This change in structure, ending guaranteed full federal funding of program benefits, will almost certainly lead some states to cut SNAP participation substantially and is likely to lead other states to end their participation in the program entirely.

Group 1: Able-Bodied Adults Without Young Children

The most sweeping change in the OBBBA involves work requirements – and it affects more people than almost any other provision.

The OBBBA significantly expanded work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents. The age range for these requirements increased from 18-54 to 18-64. Recipients must now work or participate in a work program for at least 80 hours per month, and without meeting this requirement, benefits are limited to three months in a three-year period.

The OBBBA also eliminates several categories of exemptions that previously protected certain individuals, including people who are veterans, who have aged out of foster care, who are experiencing homelessness, and who are living in areas with limited job openings.

Adults who don’t meet the work requirements can receive SNAP for three months within a three-year period. Starting May 1, 2026, people who have received SNAP benefits for three months and have not proven an exemption will lose benefits.

The research on whether these requirements actually increase employment is not encouraging. According to Cindy Leung, an associate professor of public health nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “we know from past research that increasing work requirements for social safety net programs leads to people losing benefits, not more people being employed.” Evidence suggests that work-reporting requirements decrease access to SNAP without increasing work or wages. An Urban Institute analysis estimates that nearly 700,000 young adults would lose some or all of their benefits each month because of the OBBBA’s work requirement expansion.

Group 2: Adults Ages 55 to 64

Older adults who have not yet reached retirement age are facing a particularly acute squeeze. Before the OBBBA, Americans over 54 were exempt from work requirements entirely. That exemption is now gone.

Under the updated rules, adults age 55 to 64 who do not have dependents may need to work, volunteer, or join a SNAP job training program for 80 hours each month to keep receiving benefits. Exceptions exist for adults ages 55 to 64 who are pregnant, live with a child 13 or younger, or face physical or mental health barriers to employment.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that expanded work requirements will lead to more than 1 million older adults ages 55 to 64 losing their food assistance. For many in this age group, physical limitations, chronic conditions, or age-related discrimination in the job market make it genuinely difficult to sustain 80 hours of qualifying work per month, even when they are willing.

For homeless older adults, the challenges are multiplied further. Meeting work requirements without stable housing, transportation, or addresses for receiving correspondence effectively excludes them from being eligible for benefits.

The average SNAP benefit is only $6.20 per person per day. As CBPP policy analyst Dottie Rosenbaum noted: “This isn’t a generous benefit. Now it’s getting even harder to access.”

Group 3: Refugees and Humanitarian Immigrants

Before the OBBBA, a broad range of lawfully present non-citizens could receive SNAP if they met income and household requirements. That changed significantly in November 2025.

Prior to the OBBBA’s enactment, U.S. citizens and certain lawfully present non-citizens were eligible for SNAP if they met income and non-financial requirements. Eligible non-citizen groups included refugees, asylees, victims of trafficking, Amerasians, Cuban and Haitian entrants, Iraqi and Afghan special immigrant visa holders, and Compact of Free Association citizens.

The OBBBA eliminates the text in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 that made refugees eligible for SNAP, rendering them ineligible. The rewritten text also excludes asylees, victims of trafficking, people granted a withholding of removal, survivors of domestic violence who have filed self-petitions under the Violence Against Women Act, and persons granted humanitarian parole for at least one year.

Now, SNAP is limited to U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents who may be subject to a five-year waiting period, and residents of Compact of Free Association nations.

The implementation has been complicated and, in some cases, has resulted in eligible people being incorrectly cut off. With guidance from the federal government still unclear and confusing, multiple states are applying restrictions far more broadly than the OBBBA requires, leaving many newcomers who still qualify for SNAP unable to access the benefits for which they are eligible.

The OBBBA contains a wide range of changes to SNAP that collectively place over 22 million households at risk of losing some or all of their federal food assistance benefits. For the refugee and immigrant population specifically, this removal of SNAP eligibility comes on top of other funding reductions. Under the OBBBA, access to key federal programs including SNAP, Medicaid, and CHIP has been eliminated, ending decades of guaranteed access to food and health coverage for lawfully admitted refugees.

If you are an immigrant who has been receiving SNAP and received a notice about eligibility changes, advocates recommend contacting your state’s SNAP office or a trusted legal aid organization immediately, as some currently enrolled households continue to receive benefits until their next recertification period.

Group 4: Households Affected by the Utility Rule Change

This is the least-publicized group – and it may affect more people than many realize.

Previously, households that received as little as $20 per year in federal energy assistance automatically qualified for the Standard Utility Allowance (SUA). The SUA is a deduction applied to a household’s income calculation that increases the amount of SNAP benefits they receive, by accounting for heating and cooling costs. The OBBBA eliminated this automatic link for most households.

Previously, households receiving more than $20 annually in energy assistance, such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), automatically qualified for the Standard Utility Allowance with no utility bills or additional proof required. The new rules limit this automatic process. Now, only households with an elderly or disabled member can automatically qualify. Households without an elderly or disabled member must verify actual heating or cooling costs by submitting utility bills.

That means only the cost a person actually pays for their utility, and not the full utility costs, will be counted to calculate how much SNAP assistance a person receives. In practice, this means lower benefit amounts or lost eligibility for many working-age households without disabilities.

Households that can’t claim the Standard Utility Allowance will likely see smaller monthly SNAP benefits or lose eligibility altogether. Many households will now have to track down utility bills, submit verification to their county agency, and navigate additional paperwork. If verification is delayed or missing, SNAP benefits can be reduced, delayed, or denied.

This change hit some states as early as November 2025. If your household does not include anyone over 60 or with a disability, you should contact your state SNAP office now to understand what documentation you need to submit to maintain your current benefit level.

The Bigger Picture: What These Changes Mean at Scale

The combined effect of these four changes is significant. These OBBBA provisions are estimated to reduce SNAP participation by 2.4 million people in an average month between 2025 and 2034. Many states are projected to be forced to pay as much as seven times their current SNAP amounts under the future cost-sharing requirements, depending on error rates, a dynamic that could trigger a chain reaction where states respond by cutting SNAP programs to avoid the penalties.

A substantial body of research links SNAP with lower health care costs and improved health outcomes, including better self-reported health, lower risk of heart disease and obesity among adults who had access to SNAP as children, and greater medication adherence among older participants. Reducing participation among already vulnerable groups carries real health consequences, not only food insecurity.

Some analysts note that the full picture is still emerging. Placing caseload trends into context suggests that SNAP participation was due for some adjustment and that OBBBA policies can only partly explain the recent declines. Despite recent decreases, the number of participants remains above pre-pandemic levels. But the four groups discussed in this article face targeted, structural changes, not cyclical ones.

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What This Means for You

The SNAP program remains one of the most comprehensive food assistance tools available to low-income Americans. If you are found eligible, your benefits are loaded each month onto an EBT card that functions like a debit card at authorized grocery retailers. But four groups now face a substantially higher risk of losing those benefits.

Able-bodied adults ages 18 to 64 without young children must now work, volunteer, or participate in a qualifying training program for at least 80 hours per month, or face a three-month benefit limit. Adults ages 55 to 64 lost an exemption that had protected them for decades. Refugees, asylees, trafficking survivors, and other humanitarian immigrants have been removed from SNAP eligibility entirely under the new federal law. And households without elderly or disabled members that relied on the Standard Utility Allowance to boost their benefits now face reduced payments or lost eligibility unless they proactively submit utility documentation.

If you or someone you know falls into any of these groups, the most important step is to contact your state SNAP agency directly. Once you submit your application or recertification, your state agency will process it and notify you of your eligibility within 30 days. You will need to complete an eligibility interview and provide verification of your information, with the interview typically completed by phone or in person. Advocates also recommend reaching out to local legal aid organizations, food banks, and community nonprofits, many of which are actively helping people navigate these changes and connect to alternative assistance where federal benefits have been cut.

AI Disclaimer: This article was created with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by a human editor.

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