Come this Saturday, SNAP recipients will not see their November benefits due to the federal government shutdown.
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In Pennsylvania, the Department of Human Services noted that some $350 million per month is provided by the federal government to keep the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program running.
“People are calling us and hoping us to dispel this rumor. And unfortunately, they call, and we have to tell them that it’s true,” Mackenzie Libbey with Community Legal Services said.
The Philadelphia nonprofit assists low-income individuals with free legal advice.
“This is something that people build into their budget to help supplement, supplement – I mean, it’s in the name – their food purchases. It’s not a huge amount of money. The average SNAP benefit is $180 per month per person. That’s $6 per day,” Libbey said. “We want [clients] to know that there are food banks and people can get help finding food. On the other hand, many of our clients have disabilities that make it really hard for them to get to food banks.”
According to Pennsylvania’s DHS data, Philadelphia County has the most people in the state enrolled in SNAP. The agency reports 30% of Philly’s population are SNAP recipients, which is more than 470,000 neighbors.
“We’re dealing right now with the implementation of work requirements on top of the fact that as of Oct. 16, Pennsylvania DHS has stopped issuing SNAP benefits because of the government shutdown,” Libbey said.
Despite that, Libbey noted, recipients are still expected to fill out paperwork associated with the program and continue to report if work requirements are met.
As for benefits already loaded onto EBT cards and into accounts, Libbey said these funds are safe.
“That’s money that’s already been appropriated. It’s been put on their card,” Libbey said. “So we definitely do not want people rushing out to try to use up their benefits at the end of October thinking they’re not going to be able to buy anything in November.”
Libbey expects once the government shutdown is over, people will get their November benefits retroactively.
