Abstract
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps working families meet their nutritional needs. Families whose earned income increases in a given month may have their SNAP benefits abruptly reduced or cut off in the following month. Using sentinel sample data from 2007-15 for families with children younger than age four, we investigated how SNAP benefit reductions or cutoffs resulting from increased income were related to economic hardships (food and energy insecurity, unstable housing, forgone health and/or dental care, and health cost sacrifices) and to caregiver and child health. After we controlled for covariates, we found that the groups whose SNAP benefits were reduced or cut off had significantly increased odds of household and child food insecurity, compared to a group with consistent participation in SNAP. Reduced benefits were associated with 1.43 and 1.22 times greater odds of fair or poor caregiver and child health, respectively. Policy modifications to smooth changes in benefit levels as work incomes improve may protect working families with young children from increased food insecurity, poor health, and forgone care.
Highlights
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps working families meet their nutritional needs
We focus on SNAP as a work support by examining how SNAP benefit reduction or cutoff resulting from increased earned income relates to health and other aspects of working households’ budgets—that is, for food, medical and dental care, utilities, and housing
Sample Characteristics And Unadjusted Results Of the 8,569 families with at least one employed adult who had participated in SNAP in the past year, 1,765 (20.6 percent) reported reduced SNAP benefits, and 1,407 (16.4 percent) reported cut-off benefits
Summary
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps working families meet their nutritional needs. Policy modifications to smooth changes in benefit levels as work incomes improve may protect working families with young children from increased food insecurity, poor health, and forgone care. Among SNAP-eligible households, SNAP participation is associated with greater food security and improved health, educational, and economic outcomes, compared to not participating.[3,4,10,11,12] SNAP makes a positive difference over the life course: SNAP participation in early childhood is associated with decreased risk of later metabolic syndrome and, among women, increased economic selfsufficiency.[13] Other studies have examined SNAP and children’s health and food security in the context of the relative generosity of state policies that determine benefit levels[14,15] and whether food price variations across states change SNAP purchasing power and child outcomes.[4]. Mariana Chilton is a professor of health management and policy at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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