“This is about restoring the original intent of food stamps,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on a call to reporters. “Moving more able-bodied Americans to self-sufficiency.”
Under current law, able-bodied adults without dependents working fewer than 80 hours a month or in certain training or volunteering activities qualify for three months of food stamps every three years. States and counties can waive those three-month limits if, for example, unemployment rates are high.
Currently, all but six California counties—Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo—have received waivers through August 31, 2020. Fresno has waived the limits for the past two decades.
The new rule will make it significantly harder for counties to drop the requirement. A city or county will need an unemployment rate of 6% or more, as well as approval from the governor, to qualify for a year-long exemption.
“It will require almost every county to enforce the harsh time limit on providing nutrition assistance for adults who are working less than 20 hours each week, no matter how hard they are looking for a job, have irregular schedules or are employed but unable to document their hours,” said Jessica Bartholow, policy advocate at the Western Center on Law and Poverty.
Fresno Department of Social Services Deputy Director Linda Du’Chene said the rule will particularly harm farmworkers in the Central Valley.
“We are a rural agricultural county, and we are very concerned about our clients who are working seasonal jobs. For example, it’s raining, so our farmworkers who may need those hours to qualify are not working,” Du’Chene said.
The county’s workload will also increase, as officials will have to check monthly whether CalFresh recipients are meeting their eligibility requirements.
According to Bartholow, this will affect all able-bodied adults without dependents. The California Association of Food Banks estimates that could be as many as 700,000 Californians.