Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Examining the Evidence to Define Benefit Adequacy (2013) / Chapter Skim
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2 History, Background, and Goals of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
2 History, Background, and Goals of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Pages 27-56
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From page 27... ...
includes among its goals to increase food security and reduce hunger by increasing access to food, a healthful diet, and nutrition education for low-income Americans. Nutrition assistance programs offered by USDA include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
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From page 28... ...
Because it needs $612 to purchase the TFP market basket, SNAP issues the household $312 in benefits.2 Eligibility for benefits is based on a gross income limit of 130 percent of the federal poverty threshold for a given household size, and net income may not exceed 100 percent of that threshold (households 1 Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, Public Law 110-246, Sec.
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From page 29... ...
See Figure 2-1 for a timeline of the dates of key SNAP legislation, as well as changes in participation and average benefit amounts over time. The Early Program SNAP was preceded by the original Food Stamp Program of 1939 and the pilot programs of the early 1960s.
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30 560,000 4,300,000 21,000,000 20,000,000 17,200,000 40,300,000 participants participants participants participants participants participants 0.3% of the population 2.1% of the population 9.3% of the population 8.0% of the population 6.1% of the population 13.0% of the population ERISTICS 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 KEY SNAP LEGISLATION 1964 Formally established federal 1982 EBT 1996 Food Stamp program Added the gross income test 2009 Electronic benefit transfer Welfare reform and allowed states to require Temporarily increased the cards provide SNAP participants to look for work 1996 current maximum benefit produced major benefits electronically Major changes: eliminated eligibility for many by 14 percent cutbacks to the Food legal immigrants; placed a time limit on food Stamp program stamp receipt for certain groups; and reduced 1971 the growth of the maximum benefit Simpli f ied Established uniform national standards Under subsequent amendments, the of eligibility and work requirements maximum benefit will fall back to its Reporting unadjusted amount in November 2013 1988, 1990 Established Electronic Benefit Transfer card 2002 Farm Bill offered as an official alternative to issuing benefits 2002 states opportunities Offered states opportunities to streamline the application and to streamline the reporting processes and reinstated application process eligibility for certain groups denied 1977 benefits under the 1996 legislation Established income eligibility guidelines; formalized income exclusions and deductions 2008 2008 Increased benefits by raising the minimum standard Farm Bill increased deduction and increased minimum benefits for benefits and one- and two-person households changed the name of the program Average Benefit per Person per Day $2.49 1980 $2.71 1990 $2.67 2000 $3.97 2010 to SNAP (i n f lation-adjusted dollars) CBO CBO FIGURE 2-1 SNAP timeline.
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From page 31... ...
Before the nationwide expansion, many counties operated commodity distribution programs in lieu of the Food Stamp Program, in part because the commodities were intended to cover a family's full food needs for a month with no cash contribution. The next major changes to the Food Stamp Program resulted from the Food Stamp Act of 1977.6 The purchase requirement ensured that a family would receive coupons valued at what USDA determined to be the cost of a healthy diet; however, it had a depressing effect on program participation.
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. The 1980s Through Today In the 1980s, legislators expressed concern about the size and cost of the Food Stamp Program, and subsequent legislation, among other things, limited participation by requiring households to meet a gross income test and decreasing the frequency of cost-of-living adjustments for allotments (FNS, 2012c)
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From page 33... ...
The SNAP allotment for a household is determined by the maximum benefit guarantee, the benefit reduction rate, and net income. For purposes BOX 2-2 SNAP Benefit Formula Calculation of the SNAP allotment is based on the maximum monthly benefit, which in turn is based on the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan minus 30 percent of the applicant's net income, or as: SNAP allotment = G – 0.3 × Yn, where G is the maximum monthly benefit, which varies by household size but is fixed across the contiguous 48 states and the District of Columbia (higher in Alaska and Hawaii)
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From page 34... ...
If net income is zero or negative, the household qualifies for the maximum benefit. At the other extreme, the SNAP allotment can, in theory, be zero, but USDA sets a nominal benefit floor ($16 in FY 2012 for one- to 14 Food Stamp Act of 1977, Public Law 95-113.
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The committee is unaware of any instances in which implementation of benefits more frequently than once monthly has occurred.17 Basic Eligibility Basic eligibility for SNAP requires passing two income tests and two asset tests. The gross income test requires that gross income be less than 130 percent of the federal poverty threshold for the household size, while the net income test requires that net income be less than 100 percent of the poverty threshold (see Table 2-2 for FY 2012 limits)
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Net Income Limit ($/month) 1 1,180 908 2 1,594 1,226 3 2,008 1,545 4 2,422 1,863 5 2,836 2,181 6 3,249 2,500 7 3,633 2,818 8 4,077 3,136 Each additional person 414 319 SOURCE: FNS, 2012b.
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From page 37... ...
Further, the statute makes clear that the TFP is the basis of the benefit "regardless of [a household's] actual composition."20 The Thrifty Food Plan The TFP is "an assortment of foods that represents as little change from average food consumption of families with relatively low food costs as required to provide a nutritious diet, while controlling for cost."21 As depicted in Figure 2-2, the TFP provides a market basket for each of 15 age-sex groups.
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From page 38... ...
The other three food plans are the Low-Cost Food Plan, the Moderate-Cost Food Plan, and the Liberal Food Plan. The Low-Cost plan represents food expenditures for the second-from-the-bottom quartile of food spending, the Moderate-Cost plan represents the second-from-thetop quartile, and the Liberal plan represents the top quartile.
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As a result of this lag, participants' food purchasing power may decline further to the extent that adjustments fail to account fully for the rise in the cost of the TFP. Thrifty Food Plan: Dietary and Consumption Considerations To determine the market baskets, the most recent TFP uses (1)
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. The DGA are federal nutrition policy and as such are the basis of nutrition guidance for all federal food assistance programs, including WIC, the School Meals programs, and CACFP.
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. Lin and Carlson note further that "allowing for SNAP benefits to be spent on food away from home, which is generally nutritionally inferior to food at home, may help SNAP participants balance time constraints and other needs, but could also make eating healthy even more challenging" (p.
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In 1973, the Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act26 eliminated the imported foods limitation; added plants and seeds as eligible foods; and allowed food coupons to be accepted by communal dining facilities for the disabled and elderly, as well as addiction treatment programs. An attempt at that time to ban non-nutritious foods was defeated on the House floor.27 The Food Stamp Act of 1977 In the debate on the 1977 Food Stamp Act, the House Agriculture Committee considered the issue of "junk foods." There was an effort to define such foods as those "which the Secretary, after consultation not less than once annually with the President of the National Research Council of the NAS (Food and Nutrition Board)
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any food or food product for home consumption except alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption .
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The life of the project -- Healthy Incentives Pilot -- extended from November 2011 through December 2012. The pilot was located in one county and provided a credit worth 30 percent of the purchase price of targeted fruits and vegetables bought with SNAP benefits.
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. As shown in Table 2-4, there has been a near doubling of the fraction of SNAP households receiving the maximum monthly benefit over the past decade, and takeup rates increased from 64 percent of eligible participants in 1997 to 72 percent in 2009.
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SOURCES: FNS, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2011. TABLE 2-4 Distribution of Participants by Benefit Amount, Household Size, and Takeup Rate Over Time Household Characteristic FY 1997 FY 2000 FY 2003 FY 2006 FY 2009 Percent of SNAP households 22.7 20.2 25.9 32.1 37.4 receiving maximum benefit Mean household size 2.4 2.3 2.3 2.3 2.2 Percent of SNAP-eligible 64.0 56.7 56.4 68.9 72.2 population receiving any benefit Dollar value of average benefit 0.78 0.80 0.92 1.03 1.37 per person per meala Fraction of households with 24.2 27.2 28.2 29.7 29.4 earnings NOTE: FY = fiscal year.
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In 1995, USDA began monitoring food security (see Box 2-3) by means of the annual Food Security Supplement to the monthly Current Population Survey (CPS)
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Respondents are asked about their food security status in the last 30 days, as well as over the past 12 months, and about food spending and the use of federal and community food assistance programs. The 18-item food security scale is intended to capture self- ssessed concerns/anxiety over lack a of access to healthy and safe foods owing to a lack of economic resources.
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From page 49... ...
Thereafter, food insecurity increased by 31 percent and very low food security by 32 percent, although both indicators fell slightly between 2009 and 2011 as the economic recovery began to gain traction. These trends in food insecurity must be interpreted in the context of other factors that may impact access to food for low-income households, including changes in income distribution across the low-income range, noncash assistance (e.g., participation in other assistance programs)
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Because participation in SNAP is not likely to be unrelated to food security status, a selection problem arises in evaluating the effect of the program on food insecurity (Currie, 2003)
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Their estimates showed that SNAP benefits led to an average annual decline of 4.4 percent in the incidence of poverty from 2000 to 2009, while the depth and severity of poverty declined 10.3 and 13.2 percent, respectively.38 SUMMARY Although the basic design of SNAP (with the exception of national eligibility standards and elimination of the purchase requirement) has remained 38 The incidence of poverty refers to the percentage of the population below the poverty line, while depth and severity refer to how far below the line a given poor person's income is.
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For example, households are expected to pay up to 50 percent of their net income for shelter with no commensurate reduction in the amount of their remaining income that should be considered available for food purchases -- they are still expected to spend 30 percent of their net income for food. These and other issues have continued to be debated since the inception of the permanent program in 1964 and are discussed in further detail in the ensuing chapters of this report.
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2012a. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation and costs.
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2011. Trends in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participation rates: Fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 2009: Final report.
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2009. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and the Thrifty Food Plan: Audit Report 27703-1-KC.
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2008. Food Stamp Program partici pation and food insecurity: An instrumental variables approach.
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