Federal legislators made significant changes to public assistance programs through the “Big Beautiful Bill” and the elimination of certain COVID-era exemptions. While the changes to healthcare programs (MassHealth/Medicaid, Medicare, and the Health Connector) largely do not take place until 2026, some changes to SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps) eligibility and terminations will begin August 1st of this year.
Anyone who is considered “able bodied without dependents” (ABAWD) will start to lose SNAP benefits in August if they received 3 full months of (even nonconsecutive) benefits since May 2025 unless they meet the work requirements. This is called the “3-month limit.” The SNAP terminations will start August 1 through August 14 (based on the last digit of the SSN of the recipient).
If you are completing your ABAWD paperwork and are unable to reach the DTA over the phone, please reach out to a member of my district team. Regina Fink can be reached at 857-242-1892 or regina.fink@masenate.gov and Annie Mazzola can be reached at 857-207-8738 or anne.mazzola@masenate.gov.
Some high-level information is below. For more information and resources, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) created this guide to the new SNAP rules and a companion slide deck.
- Who is an ABAWD who is subject to the Work Rules?
- Many people enrolled in SNAP are exempt from the ABAWD work requirements. These exemptions will need to be communicated to the DTA, although some categories will be automatically shared with the DTA.
- Exemptions are outlined below. Note that many of these categories denoted with an asterisk will become less inclusive or be removed in 2026 because of the Big Beautiful Bill. Massachusetts will know the specifics regarding these changes and when they are enacted once guidance is issued to the DTA from the USDA.
| Exemption Categories | Specific Exemption |
|---|---|
| Age and Family Status | Under 18 or 55 or older* |
| In a household with a child under 18 years old* | |
| Caring for a disabled person or child under 6 years old, even if not living together | |
| Housing Situation | Homeless* |
| At risk of homelessness* | |
| Employment and Income | Earning $217.50/week or more (working at least 14.5 hours/week at $15/hour – the current minimum wage in MA) Or, if earning less than the minimum wage, working 30 or more hours/week |
| Applied for or getting unemployment benefits | |
| Education and Training | In any recognized school, training program, or college program (enrolled at least half time) |
| Health | Pregnant |
| Has a hard time working or can’t work at least 20 hours/week due to short- or long-term health reasons (mental or physical) that make it hard to get or keep a job | |
| Getting a disability benefit or payment (including SSI, SSDI, EAEDC, worker’s compensation, short term disability, etc) | |
| MassAbility participant (formerly Mass Rehab Commission) or participating in services from Mass. Department of Mental Health | |
| In substance use treatment program | |
| Veteran | Served in any branch, regardless of discharge* |
| Formerly in Foster Care | Was in foster care on or after they turned 18 years old and are currently under 25 years old* |
| Domestic Violence | Domestic violence/intimate partner violence with safety concerns that impact ability to work* |
2. If you do not fall into one of the above categories, you will need to complete the Work Rules.
| Ways to Meet the Work Rules | How to Meet the Work Rules |
|---|---|
| Employment | Work at least 20 hours/week on average, or 80 hours/month. |
| DTA Employment and Training Program | Participate in a DTA SNAP Path to Work Employment and Training (E&T) program for at least 20 hours/week on average. *Can combine with hours worked, see above, for a total of 20 hours/week. |
| Volunteer Work/ Community Service | Do volunteer work for a nonprofit organization for a specific number of hours each month. Number of hours per month is the amount of the ABAWD’s SNAP benefit divided by $15 (the current MA minimum wage). DTA notices state the number of hours needed. *Cannot combine with work or training hours. |
I am glad the rules are finally tightening up. I just looked up how much money the federal govt spends annually on food assistance programs (142 Billion). So many people are abusing it. I’m all for helping people in need, however, not willing to pay for someones food who could very well pay for it themselves, but would rather have that 5th tattoo or 1k cell phone, or just does not need to work as we have such a welfare state. Let’s give people a chance to have dignity and feed themselves.
How many are going to hire and pay $30/hr?
Mr. All For Helping, but…”
If you are healthy and of working age….you should be working. If you are going to receive free food from your neighbors you should contribute to society. If your argument is there are no good paying jobs (which is not true), then the State should employ them with projects that better society and themselves. There really is no good argument for why a healthy working age person cannot be productive. It’s not healthy for the State or the individual.
Thanks Mark! I’ve volunteered in community suppers, food banks, and food distributions in A/B for more than 4 decades. I’ve come to parting of ways with the programs when I start trying to add job training to our mission. Somehow this is interpreted as shaming versus empowering.
Absolutely rotten. The most vulnerable people are going to suffer. Thank you for sharing this information and pointing people in helpful directions. Great post!
Billions of American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are feeding Eastern-European neo-nazi press gangs who kidnap random people off the streets and send them to the front lines of a savage war, with no training, to get slaughtered. Billions of American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars are feeding Middle-Eastern religious fanatics who amuse themselves by shooting starving women and children whose land they covet. But somehow a measly few million bucks can’t be spared to feed innocent needy Americans here at home? Ask yourself: which countries are these tax-and-spend-on-foreign-criminals advocates really loyal to? Undeclared agents of foreign powers should have no business making policy in the United States, at the expense of American taxpayers. There’s plenty of money collected by the internal revenue folks every year, that could easily feed everyone here at home. And provide them with job training, child care, education, rehabilitation, employment, you name it. The problem is, huge amounts of that money are being diverted to support and defend nefarious interests overseas. To the detriment of this country, which used to belong to us. Local and state policy issues are very closely entwined with federal-level and international policy issues. Real solutions to local and state problems (“We can’t afford it!”) depend absolutely on first getting back control of the national purse strings. The federal legislature that used to hold that control on our behalf, has been bought. The few legislators who could not be purchased, or at least rented for a while, have been intimidated and threatened into compliance. So don’t blame the poor and needy who merely ask us for some food. Blame the well-organized and utterly amoral interests who now own and control our country. (And traffic our children, according to reports I’ve read.) It’s largely because of them that so many of us are poor and needy. Listen to President Eisenhower’s farewell address to the nation. It’s on YouTube. I’m almost old enough to remember it as he gave it on live TV. Truer words were never spoken. He saw the all-consuming warfare state coming, and tried to warn us. Unfortunately, most of us either didn’t listen or didn’t take him seriously. We are now paying the price for our carelessness. That’s why we can’t have nice things. Any country that demands a full accounting for every last government penny given to every impoverished citizen, and simultaneously shrugs off the fact that its own War Department has never passed an audit… and can’t account for trillions of dollars that had been entrusted to it… is a country on the path of ultimate self-destruction.
Correction: SNAP’s annual budget is around $113 billion. 97% of which directly feeds people here at home. Next year the War Department will be asking Congress for just over $1 trillion. Guess how much of that will go to pay for flunkies whose job description is to carry some flag-rank officers’ briefcases into the Senate or House chamber? Where Three-Star Smith and Four-Star Jones can wheedle and con a few billion more from the Armed Services Committee. Want to know why the country is groaning under a soon-to-become-lethal level of national debt? Because of Smith and Jones. And those Senators and Congress critters. And the oligarchs and spooks, home-grown and foreign, who own all of them. And us, for tolerating this disgraceful mess.