Changes begin to Arkansas SNAP program

By Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate

More Arkansans will be subject to food assistance program work requirements starting today, after a panel of legislators approved emergency rules put forward by the Arkansas Department of Human Services Thursday.

The changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) implement work requirements on adult SNAP recipients younger than 64 and without dependents younger than 14 who are capable of working.

Previously, those with dependents 18 or younger and those older than 54 were not subject to SNAP work requirements. That changed as a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress over the summer. The work-requirement provisions went into effect when the law was signed, but states had until Nov. 1 to implement the changes.

But DHS didn’t receive guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for implementing the changes until October and couldn’t promulgate the rules in time for the Nov. 1 deadline, Mary Franklin, director of DHS’ Division of County Operations, told the Advocate after the Arkansas Legislative Council’s Executive subcommittee meeting Thursday.

Arkansas will start implementing the changes to work requirement exemptions upon adjournment of the Arkansas Legislative Council on Friday using the emergency rule approved by the body’s Executive Subcommittee. A permanent rule will come next year.

The federal law also removed work requirement exemptions for homeless individuals, veterans and those 24 or younger who have aged out of foster care.

Those subject to work requirements must work at least 80 hours a month, or be participating in education, training or volunteer work to receive SNAP benefits for longer than three months within a three year period.

Advocates have worried the changes to work requirements and additional financial burdens on states to operate the program could result in large numbers of individuals and families losing their benefits nationwide. In fiscal year 2024, 240,000 people received SNAP benefits in Arkansas, and 12.6% of the households receiving benefits had children, according to USAFacts.

Despite consistently being one of the most food insecure states in the U.S., according to USDA data, the number of Arkansans receiving SNAP benefits has fallen steadily even as poverty rates remained relatively constant. In fiscal year 2024, the number of Arkansans receiving food benefits was the lowest since 1991 and less than half of the number participating in the program in fiscal year 2013.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.