Western Center opposes proposed SNAP requirements for Able-Bodied Adults without Dependents (ABAWDs)

Western Center has submitted comments to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) opposing a proposed rule to change work requirements for Able-Bodied Adults without Dependents (ABAWDs) in need of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. SNAP offers an essential support for preventing hunger among low-income individuals. Denying food assistance to people who are without work will not incentivize more work, as the Administration claims, but rather, will likely plunge a significant number of people further into hunger. No one is at their best when they are hungry.

Western Center advocates for the health and dignity of people in poverty, so we view the proposed ABAWD rule as a hardhearted and misguided manipulation of welfare reform. Allowing people to go hungry in one of the wealthiest countries in the world is both immoral and short-sighted.

Our full comments can be read here, and an excerpt is available below:

“The Western Center on Law and Poverty is deeply concerned by attempts to restrict food assistance to the individuals whom we serve in California. We strongly support the goal of helping SNAP participants obtain and keep quality jobs that enable them to achieve economic security. However, we believe the restrictions suggested in the proposed rule would not achieve that. Instead, they will result in large numbers of out-of-work Californians and workers struggling to work full time or to prove that they work full time losing access to SNAP nutrition assistance, becoming increasingly food insecure, and losing the vitality necessary to seek work or advance their careers.”