Changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are expected to cause 36,000 Connecticut residents to lose their SNAP benefits, and an additional 50,000 residents to see their benefits decreased, said Andrea Barton Reeves, Commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Social Services (DSS). Barton Reeves explained these changes to the state legislature’s Appropriations Committee in a hearing held this morning.

“We only recently received some guidance from the federal government as to how the changes should be implemented, and they’ve given us a virtually nonexistent window, I’ll just describe it that way, in which to implement the changes,” said Barton Reeves. “We are working on them very quickly, and you will see that reflected in the slides.”

Barton Reeves explained that HR 1, more commonly known as the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), has made four major changes to the SNAP program. These four changes include funding eliminations to SNAP Ed, greater restrictions to the SNAP Heat and Eat program, new restrictions on non-citizen residents’ eligibility for benefits and changes to the program’s work requirements. While President Trump signed the bill into law on July 4, many of its changes to the SNAP program are set to kick into effect in the coming weeks.

On November 1, the state will see a near-total elimination of its Heat and Eat program. Heat and Eat is a taxpayer-funded benefit provided through some states, including Connecticut, to help increase a SNAP recipient’s benefits. In Connecticut, the state would provide LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) recipients with slightly larger energy assistance payments to receive greater SNAP benefits. These payments, which Barton Reeves said amounted to $20.01 per recipient, would help LIHEAP recipients qualify for higher SNAP benefits and streamline an otherwise complex deductions process both for recipients and state agencies.

Heat and Eat is currently provided to any SNAP household whose heat is included in their rent, or which has a shelter obligation. As of Nov. 1, states will only be able to provide Heat and Eat benefits to households containing an elderly or disabled individual, disqualifying approximately 50,000 Connecticut households from the increased benefit. DSS estimated that it will lead to a $100 per month reduction in SNAP benefits for previous Heat and Eat recipients, and projected a loss of approximately $62.5 million in SNAP benefits per year.

“If we have working parents, if we’ve got people who are working multiple jobs, if we have any number of categories of people who are accessing SNAP under the Heat and Eat, none of those people are eligible anymore,” said Barton Reeves.

The second most significant difference in eligibility comes with OBBBA’s reconfiguring of work requirements, and work requirement exemptions. Previously, SNAP recipients from the ages of 19-54 without dependents, classified as Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD), were required to work to receive benefits, unless they met certain other criteria. OBBBA not only extended this age range by 10 years, meaning ABAWDs will now be required to work unless they’re 65 or older to receive benefits, but also reduced the number of other work requirement exemptions. 

DSS estimated that there are 44,000 people aged 55-64 who will no longer receive this exemption. Reeves said this group, “must find some sort of employment, volunteerism, or meet some other definition of community engagement,” to retain their benefits. DSS estimated that 33,000 of this group will likely still be exempt from work requirements due to meeting other exemption qualifying circumstances, but that 11,000 will now be at risk of losing their benefits. 

DSS Deputy Commissioner Peter Hadler explained that prior to OBBBA, the state could exempt work requirements for ABAWD recipients in areas with above-average unemployment rates. But since OBBBA dictates these exemptions can now only be provided to towns which have 10% or higher unemployment rates, and since Connecticut has no towns that meet this criteria, the 20,000 state residents who previously received this exemption will now be subject to work requirements. 

“Residents in these towns will now need to comply with the ABAWD work requirements, or identify another exemption from those work requirements in order to maintain their SNAP benefits,” said Hadler. 

Unemployed ABAWD SNAP recipients are only eligible for benefits for three months every three years, unless they find employment or meet some other qualifying criteria. Hadler said that 1,500 state residents who previously qualified under this geographic exemption, have already exhausted their three months of eligibility, and will lose their benefits in December. The other 20,000 who received geographic work exemptions will see their eligibility cease on a rolling basis depending on their three-month eligibility timeline.

“Starting in December, about 1,500 individuals who had previously been covered by a town exemption will have their SNAP benefits end because they will have exhausted their three months, unless they can establish that they are subject to another exemption,” said Hadler. “A simple example of that might be if they are pregnant.”

Hadler said that work requirements have also been added to some households with dependents. Previously, SNAP recipients caring for children under the age of 18 did not have work requirements, but that age has been lowered to 14, meaning parents of teenagers between the ages of 14-18 will not receive work requirement exemptions. Hadler said that if the parent can’t work or find work, “the children would continue to receive benefits, but their household benefit would shrink.” 

DSS estimates that 17,000 Connecticut households with children between the ages of 14-18 will be impacted by this change. Additionally, ABAWD recipients who received work-requirement exemptions due to their status as veterans (300 residents) or homeless people (5,000 residents), as well as an unspecified number of former foster children under the age of 24, will also lose their work requirement exemptions. DSS estimated that people who received exemptions under those categories, as well as those who received geographic exemptions, comprise about 43,000 state residents. Of those 43,000 residents, DSS expects that 18,000 will qualify for work requirement exemptions via other qualifying factors, but that 25,000 will be put at risk of exhausting their three-month eligibility of SNAP benefits.

Additional changes to eligibility include the reduction of non-citizen classes that can apply for SNAP benefits. As of November 1, only lawful permanent residents (those with green cards), Cuban or Haitian immigrants and citizens of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands or Palau, can receive SNAP benefits. Refugees and asylum-seekers, victims of human trafficking or domestic violence, and Afghani or Iraqi special immigrants (those who were provided visas for assisting US-armed forces in the War on Terror) will lose eligibility going forward.

Barton Reeves said that on Nov. 3, notices will be mailed and texted to households to inform pertinent recipients of their loss in SNAP eligibility. On Nov. 30th, closure notices will go out to those 1,500 ABAWD residents who have exhausted their three-month eligibility, and on December 1st, the three-month time limit will begin for remaining ABAWD recipients without other exemptions.

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