SNAP Bill Raises Work Age to 65, Requires 6-Month Aid History for Eligibility

The “SNAP Reform and Upward Mobility Act of 2025” is a two-part bill that promises to revolutionize how the government measures poverty while simultaneously tightening the screws on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. Title I is all about getting better data on who is actually struggling, while Title II introduces significant new hurdles for people trying to access food assistance.

The Data Deep Dive: Measuring Poverty by the Penny

Title I mandates a massive data collection effort starting in Fiscal Year 2025. The Census Bureau will start tracking nearly every dollar of federal assistance you receive—from SNAP and Medicaid to Pell Grants and the Earned Income Tax Credit. This new data will allow the government to calculate an “alternative poverty measure” that accounts for the value of non-cash benefits. Think of it this way: instead of just counting your cash income, they’ll try to figure out the dollar value of your housing voucher or your food benefits to get a truer picture of your financial situation.

This push for better data is important for researchers, but it comes with a catch: it requires state agencies to hand over personally identifiable information (PII) of benefit recipients to federal agencies. While the bill includes strict felony penalties (up to five years in prison and a $300,000 fine) for anyone who illegally accesses or shares this sensitive new data, the sheer centralization of this information is a significant new power granted to the Census Bureau. They also established a Commission of political appointees to determine how to value all those non-cash benefits—a process that could easily be skewed depending on who is doing the math.

New Hurdles for Food Assistance

Title II is where the rubber meets the road for anyone relying on SNAP. The bill makes several major changes that will immediately impact eligibility and access.

First, the age limit for general work requirements is being raised from 60 to 65. If you’re an able-bodied adult without dependents (ABAWDs), the rules are getting much tougher: the required monthly work or training hours jump from 55 to 64, and any job search activity must now be in-person supervised. For those living in areas exempt from work requirements due to high unemployment, that exemption is now much harder to get, requiring the unemployment rate to be over 10 percent at the county level, not the broader labor market area. Perhaps most critically, the percentage of participants states can exempt from these rules is slashed from 15 percent down to 5 percent. This means a lot more people will be forced into the work requirements or lose their benefits.

The Six-Month Waiting Game

One of the biggest changes involves a new eligibility hurdle (Sec. 204). To qualify for SNAP, a household must now prove they have been receiving other means-tested public benefits (cash or non-cash) for at least six months in a row, with a total value of at least $50. If you’re a family that just lost a job or suffered a sudden financial crisis, you can no longer apply for SNAP immediately to keep food on the table. You need a six-month track record of being on the system first. This provision creates a significant waiting period that could leave newly impoverished families without food assistance when they need it most.

State Budgets and Fraud Crackdowns

The bill also shifts the financial burden for running the program (Sec. 203). Currently, the federal government covers most of the administrative costs. Starting in FY 2025, states must begin matching these funds, starting at 10 percent and escalating every year until they reach a 50 percent match by 2033. This is a massive new cost for state budgets, which will likely lead to cuts in other state services or increased taxes to cover the expense.

On the fraud front, the bill mandates that SNAP eligibility requires full cooperation with any fraud investigation (Sec. 205). For EBT card users, unauthorized use by someone not registered on the card now results in escalating benefit suspensions—from one month for four unauthorized uses to potentially multiple months for seven or more uses (Sec. 206). Retailers flagged as medium or high risk for fraud must now undergo mandatory annual reauthorization (Sec. 207), and those caught trafficking benefits face permanent disqualification, though states can opt for heavy fines instead if they determine kicking the store out would cause hardship for participants.