A sweeping tax-and-spending law signed in 2025 quietly rewrote who has to work to keep their food stamps, and the change fell hardest on groups that used to be shielded outright. Veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults who aged out of foster care had all been exempt from the program’s work rules. Under the new law those carve-outs are gone, and older adults who once aged out of the requirement now have to keep meeting it well into their sixties. For families already stretching a fixed income across groceries, the shift can mean losing a benefit that averages a few hundred dollars a month.
What the “able-bodied adult” work rule actually requires
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has long imposed a time limit on so-called able-bodied adults without dependents: unless they work or participate in a qualifying activity for at least 80 hours a month, they can receive benefits for only three months in any three-year period. The rule had carried a list of exemptions, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture administers it through the states. What the One Big Beautiful Bill Act changed was not the 80-hour test itself but who has to pass it, pulling entire categories of people into a requirement they were previously spared from.
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Veterans, the homeless, and former foster youth lose blanket protection
The law eliminated the standing exemptions for veterans, for adults experiencing homelessness, and for people 24 and younger who left foster care. Those groups had been excused from the time limit on the recognition that unstable housing, service-related disruption, or a recent exit from state care makes steady documented work difficult to sustain. Removing the exemptions does not automatically cut anyone off, but it forces each person to log 80 hours a month, prove a separate qualifying reason, or lose benefits after the three-month clock runs out. Advocacy groups have warned that veterans with service-connected challenges and people without a fixed address are among the least equipped to produce the monthly paperwork the rule demands, according to reporting on how the law is rolling out across states.
Older adults and caregivers get pulled back in
The change reaches beyond those three groups. The upper age at which the time limit stops applying was raised, so the work rule now extends to adults up to age 64, where it previously released people in their mid-fifties. That widens the requirement across a stretch of near-retirement years when steady employment is often hardest to find. The law also tightened the exemption for people caring for a child: it now applies only to those responsible for a dependent under age 14, so a parent or grandparent caring for an older child can be swept into the work test as well. Together the two changes redraw the map of who counts as “able-bodied and without dependents” in a way that captures many people who never expected to be covered.
How to keep benefits under the new rules
Losing an automatic exemption is not the same as losing eligibility, and the difference comes down to documentation. Affected recipients can preserve benefits by meeting the 80-hour monthly threshold through paid work, volunteering, or an approved employment-and-training activity, and states are required to screen for other exemptions that still stand, including physical or mental limitations that prevent work and responsibility for an incapacitated household member. Someone who believes an exemption still applies has the right to raise it with the state SNAP office rather than assume the benefit will simply lapse. Because the provisions are phasing in on different timelines from state to state, the practical effect in any given month depends on where a household lives and where its case sits in the renewal cycle.
The stakes as the rules spread state by state
The USDA is still issuing implementation guidance to the states, and coverage of the rollout shows the requirement taking effect in more places as waivers that once paused it expire. For a retiree or near-retiree who counted on food assistance to close the gap between a modest check and rising grocery prices, the loss of a three-month benefit can force hard tradeoffs against rent, medicine, or utilities. The law did not shrink the size of a monthly benefit; it changed who must clear a work hurdle to keep receiving one at all, and it did so for millions of people who had long been told they did not have to.
What counts toward the 80-hour test
For those newly pulled into the requirement, the practical question is what actually satisfies the 80 hours a month. The rule counts more than a conventional paycheck: paid employment, self-employment, and unpaid work such as volunteering for a qualified organization all qualify, as does participation in an approved employment-and-training or workfare program run through the state SNAP agency. Hours can be combined across activities, so someone working part-time can add volunteer or training hours to reach the threshold. A recipient who falls short in a given month is not barred forever; after using up the three months of benefits allowed in a three-year period, a person can regain eligibility by meeting the work requirement for a stretch of days, or by later qualifying for one of the exemptions that still stand. States also retain limited discretionary exemptions they can grant to a small share of their caseload, and areas with high unemployment may still receive waivers that pause the time limit locally. The upshot is that keeping benefits under the new law is less about proving one is deserving and more about logging, and documenting, enough qualifying hours every single month.
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
