New Food Stamps Rules: SNAP Work Requirements, Waivers, and Deductions

The biggest set of new food stamps rules in years took effect after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21) in 2025. The law expands work requirements to adults through age 64, eliminates exemptions that had protected veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and former foster youth, tightens the criteria states must meet to waive work rules, caps future growth in the benefit formula, and, beginning in FY 2028, requires states with high error rates to pay part of the benefit bill. On top of those structural changes, USDA’s annual cost-of-living adjustment set the FY 2026 maximum monthly SNAP benefit at $298 for one person and $994 for a family of four.¹

Work Requirements Now Reach Adults Through Age 64

Under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the three-month time limit for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) applied to people aged 18 through 54. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act raises the ceiling to 64 and, for the first time, applies the time limit to parents whose youngest child is 14 or older.²

If you fall into the expanded group, you must work or participate in a qualifying program for at least 80 hours a month. Qualifying activities include paid employment, unpaid work, volunteering, and federal or state work programs. Miss the 80-hour threshold and you can receive SNAP for only three months in any 36-month period. Once those three months are used, benefits stop until you log an 80-hour month or qualify for an exemption.³

USDA is still writing implementation guidance, so exact rollout dates vary by state.⁴ The underlying rule, however, is now federal law.

General Work Registration Still Applies

Separately from the ABAWD time limit, most non-disabled adults between 16 and 59 must register for work as a condition of receiving SNAP. That means accepting a suitable job if offered, not quitting or cutting hours below 30 per week without good cause, and cooperating with state employment and training requests. Failing to comply can cost you benefits for at least one month. People caring for a child under six, anyone already working 30 hours a week, full-time students, unemployment recipients, and people unable to work for physical or mental health reasons are exempt from these general registration rules.

Exemptions That Were Removed, and One That Was Added

The 2023 law had carved out three groups from the time limit: veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults who had aged out of foster care. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminates all three.² If you relied on one of those carve-outs to keep benefits without documenting work hours, that protection is gone. You would need to qualify under one of the remaining exemptions, such as a disability, pregnancy, care of a child under 14, or age 65 or older.⁵

The law does add new exemptions for certain Native Americans, specifically Indians, Urban Indians, and California Indians as defined by cross-referenced federal statutes.²

State Waivers Are Much Harder to Get

States have long been able to request waivers from the time limit for areas with weak labor markets. The new law restricts waivers to areas where unemployment exceeds 10%, a far higher bar than before. Alaska and Hawaii operate under a different standard, qualifying when local unemployment reaches at least 1.5 times the national rate. USDA terminated all existing waivers, so states that previously had broad relief must reapply under the tighter criteria.² For recipients living in areas that used to be waived, the practical effect is that the ABAWD clock now runs.

Deduction Changes That Can Lower Your Benefit

Two changes affect how shelter and utility costs factor into the benefit calculation.

First, internet expenses can no longer be counted when calculating the excess shelter deduction. If your caseworker previously included your internet bill, that piece will come out at your next recertification.

Second, for households that do not include an elderly or disabled member, receiving a Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) payment no longer automatically qualifies the household for the Standard Utility Allowance. Many states had used small LIHEAP payments to trigger the higher utility deduction on the SNAP side. Households with an elderly or disabled member are not affected by this LIHEAP change.²

The other standard deductions remain in place. Every household still gets a flat standard deduction (for FY 2026, $209 a month for households of one to three, $223 for four, $261 for five, and $299 for six or more), 20% of earned income is still excluded, dependent care costs still deductible, and the medical expense deduction for members aged 60 or older or with a disability still applies to out-of-pocket costs above $35 a month.¹

Limits on Future Benefit Increases

SNAP benefit levels are tied to USDA’s Thrifty Food Plan, which estimates the cost of a basic nutritious diet. When USDA reevaluated the plan in 2021, benefit levels rose substantially. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act blocks any reevaluation of the plan before October 1, 2027, and when USDA does reevaluate, the plan’s value cannot rise faster than the Consumer Price Index. Annual inflation adjustments continue as before, but the kind of large structural increase that happened in 2021 is off the table going forward.²

States Will Start Paying Part of the Bill in FY 2028

The federal government has historically covered 100% of SNAP benefit costs. That changes in fiscal year 2028 for states with high payment error rates:

Error rate between 6% and 8%: state pays 5% of benefit costs
Error rate between 8% and 10%: state pays 10%
Error rate at or above 10%: state pays 15%

Separately, beginning in FY 2027, the federal share of state administrative costs drops from 50% to 25%.² These shifts do not directly change your eligibility or benefit amount, but they put budget pressure on state agencies that run the program.

FY 2026 Benefit Amounts and Income Limits

Even with the structural changes, the annual cost-of-living adjustment took effect on schedule. For October 2025 through September 2026, the maximum monthly allotments in the 48 contiguous states and D.C. are:

1 person: $298
2 people: $547
3 people: $784
4 people: $994

These are ceilings. Your actual benefit depends on household size, income, and allowable deductions, and most households receive less than the maximum. Eligible one- and two-person households always receive at least $24 a month. The new amounts apply automatically to active cases; no new paperwork is required.¹

Gross monthly income generally cannot exceed 130% of the federal poverty level. For FY 2026, that is $1,696 for a single-person household and $3,483 for a household of four. After allowable deductions, net income must be at or below 100% of the poverty level.⁶

For households subject to the asset test, the resource limit is $3,000 in countable assets, or $4,500 if the household includes someone 60 or older or with a disability. Countable assets include cash, bank balances, and certain investments; your primary home, most retirement accounts, and resources belonging to SSI or TANF recipients are excluded.⁷

What Did Not Change

Several things survived the 2025 overhaul that were expected to be on the chopping block or are commonly confused with the new rules.

Broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE) remains. Many states use BBCE to raise the gross income ceiling (often to 165%–200% of the poverty level) and waive the asset test for most households. Despite active debate during negotiations, the final law did not eliminate BBCE.⁸

The rules on what you can buy with an EBT card are unchanged. SNAP still covers food to prepare at home, including fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, bread, cereals, and seeds and plants that produce food, and still excludes alcohol, tobacco, vitamins and supplements, hot prepared foods, and non-food household items.⁹

Noncitizen eligibility rules still allow lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, and certain other qualified noncitizens to receive SNAP depending on status and time in the country, and receiving SNAP is still not a public charge factor for immigration purposes. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act does include provisions affecting noncitizen SNAP eligibility, and USDA is releasing implementation guidance in stages.⁷ If your household includes a noncitizen member, watch for state notices as those details are finalized.

If you are already receiving benefits, the two things most likely to reach you in the next year are a recertification packet that recalculates your shelter deduction without internet costs, and, if you are between 55 and 64 or a parent of a teenager, a notice about the ABAWD work requirement. Keep pay stubs, hour logs, and any documentation of a qualifying exemption ready before your next review.

1
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP FY 2026 Maximum Allotments and Deductions
2
Congress.gov. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Related Provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 USC 2015 – Eligibility Disqualifications
4
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Work Requirements
5
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Special Rules for the Elderly or Disabled
6
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP FY 2026 Income Eligibility Standards
7
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Eligibility
8
Food and Nutrition Service. Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility (BBCE)
9
Congress.gov. Farm Bill Primer: SNAP and Nutrition Title Programs