Working families receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits can lose more in food assistance than they gain from a raise or extra hours if their earnings cross an eligibility limit, cutting off benefits worth more than the additional pay and leaving them with less money to feed their children. The problem is known as a "benefits cliff": a point at which an increase in earnings triggers a reduction or loss of public assistance that is larger than the additional income a household has gained. Federal researchers, academics and organizations working with low-income families have documented how the possibility of crossing those thresholds can complicate decisions about taking extra hours, accepting raises or moving into better-paying jobs.
In some cases, families cross the threshold and find they have lost a significant portion of their income, even though their pay has risen. SNAP benefits are paid to low- and no-income households across the U.S. For more than 35 million people across all 50 states and U.S. territories, they help put food on the table with monthly payments uploaded to a prepaid benefits card, which can be used in participating grocery stores.
Alicia Freemont, a 29-year-old mother in Nebraska, has experienced the plight of the benefits cliff. She told Newsweek that she lost $150 monthly SNAP benefits in early 2024 after being informed that her income was less than $20 above the eligibility limit for her household. At the time, she was a single mother working full time.
"I was $19 over, and that was so hard," she said. Her difficulties did not end when she dropped off SNAP. More than two years later, after an injury reduced her work hours, Alicia applied for assistance again, which was denied.
Her household is now relying partly on credit cards while she works part time and attends medical appointments, trying to find a way to keep her and her family financially afloat. Benefits cliffs can occur across means-tested programs, like SNAP, when eligibility or assistance changes as household income rises. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defines a benefits cliff as a situation in which a reduction in benefits is equal to or larger than the increase in earnings that caused it.
That can mean a worker receives a raise or works additional hours but sees little improvement, or even a decline, in their household’s overall finances. Stephanie Gonzalez Guittar, an associate professor of sociology at Rollins College whose research interests include housing and food insecurity, told Newsweek that relatively small increases in earnings may not significantly change a family’s ability to meet its expenses. "Small income increases may not be substantial enough to change one’s quality of life based on current costs of living," Gonzalez Guittar said.
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