Food Stamp Recipients Face Cuts this Holiday Season
By the beginning of November this year, millions of food stamp recipients will begin to see a reduction in their benefits. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamp program) will begin reducing benefits due to a recession-era boost in benefits which is expiring.
According to the USDA, the food stamp program is serving more than 23 million US households and nearly 48 million individuals. The average monthly benefit that recipients receive is $275. With the budget cut however, a family of 4 will on average receive $36 less per month in food stamp benefits.
What’s worse is that they House of Representatives passed a bill in mid-September that would eliminate about $39 billion from the SNAP budget over the next 10 years. As a result some families that really need the additional assistance will be dropped from the program completely with nowhere else to turn.
For many American’s that are enrolled in the food stamp program, this is their last resort.
These budget cuts will cause hardships for millions of families that live in “deep poverty,” having family incomes below half of the poverty line, as well as the elderly and the seriously disabled.
To Democratic politicians, the food stamp program is part of the country’s commitment to help those that are struggling to meet their most basic needs. The majority of districts with the greatest concentration of food stamp recipients are represented by Democrats in urban areas.
State agencies like the Florida Department of Children and Families have been posting this information on their call center hold messages and websites in an effort to get the word about the program benefit reduction to as many people as possible. At the Kansas Department of Children and Families, they have been providing benefit recipients with an estimate as to what kind of reduction they will be seeing. They have also taken the liberty to notify their community partners and inform them about the possible increase in services that they may see.
April Lewis-Parks has more than 15 years of experience in the financial sector, she is a certified financial counselor, and a consumer affairs advocate. As the director of education and public relations for Consolidated Credit she is dedicated to generating awareness about personal finance issues and acts as their consumer affairs advocate. As host the of MissMoneyBee.com, she promotes financial education and offers timely and informative personal finance articles to educate the public. April’s promotional efforts can be seen in past issues of the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsday, Consumer Reports, the Business Journals, Money Magazine, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Family Circle, among others. Connect with April on Google+.