Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Overview
Food Stamp Eligibility Requirements
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provided food assistance to 47.7 million people in 23.1 million households in June 2013. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that SNAP spending will peak at $83 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 before falling, beginning in FY 2014. SNAP participation and costs have increased markedly since FY 2007, mostly as a result of automatic and legislated responses to the recession.While much of the recent increase is attributable to the poor economy, recently, States have been increasingly adopting more expansive “categorical eligibility” rules — a set of policies that make a SNAP applicant eligible…
