The Food Stamp Explosion

 For starters, Food Stamps convey a novel name. The 2008 farm mouth changed the lift to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. But whatever the name, enrollment rose from 17.3 1000000 inwards 2001 to 46.2 1000000 inwards Oct 2011. In the March 2012 result of Amber Waves, published past times the U.S.A. Department of Agriculture,  Margaret Andrews as well as David Smallwood ask: "What’s Behind the Rise inwards SNAP Participation?"

Here's a graph showing SNAP enrollment, along alongside the unemployment charge per unit of measurement as well as the poverty rate. The pass upwards inwards SNAP enrollment afterward 1996 is business office of the aftermath of the welfare reform human activeness that passed that year, which led to much smaller welfare rolls as well as every bit good tightened rules for receiving Food Stamps. the run-up inwards SNAP enrollment since the rootage of the recession is large, only Andrews as well as Smallwood scream for out that it's inside the historical parameters of what 1 would hold back given the ascension inwards unemployment rates as well as poverty rates over that time. 

 What's maybe less expected inwards the graph is that Food Stamp enrollment was rising steadily from 2001 upwards through 2006, although unemployment rates were depression as well as falling during much of that time. The authors describe much of this modify to changes inwards federal rules making it easier for people to apply, as well as easier for states to certify to the federal regime that the benefits are existence targeted. In addition, SNAP create goodness levels were increased both inwards the 2008 farm mouth as well as inwards the 2009 "stimulus" legislation, making it to a greater extent than attractive to apply. Here's a graph showing the maximum SNAP create goodness for a solid of 4 as well as the average benefit.

When you lot human face at the numbers, Food Stamps play what may travel a surprisingly large purpose inwards America's social security internet for the poor. Total spending on Food Stamps inwards 2011 was almost $78 billion. According to the Center on Budget as well as Policy Priorities, "Roughly 93 per centum of SNAP benefits larn to households alongside incomes below the poverty line, as well as 55 per centum larn to households alongside incomes below half of the poverty trouble ..."


For comparison, federal expenditures through the Earned Income Tax Credit were almost $56 billion inwards 2011. As approximately other comparison, full spending on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), what is what most people hateful past times "welfare," was almost $33 billion inwards combined federal as well as dry reason spending inwards 2010. In many states, SNAP far outstrips TANF inwards the marker of back upwards it provides for low-income families.