New Law Stops Social Security Payments from Cutting SNAP Benefits, Effective 2027

Alright, let's talk about something that could actually make a difference for a lot of folks trying to make ends meet. We've got a new piece of legislation, the 'COLAs Don't Count Act of 2026,' that's looking to tweak how the government calculates your food assistance. This one's pretty straightforward, which is always a relief.

What's Cooking with SNAP?

So, what's this bill actually doing? Simply put, it's changing the rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which most of us know as food stamps. Currently, if you get certain supplementary payments under Section 1616(a) of the Social Security Act, those payments can sometimes count as income. And when your income goes up, your SNAP benefits can go down, or you might even lose eligibility altogether. This bill, specifically in Section 2, says "nope, not anymore." It adds a new category of excluded income, meaning those specific supplementary payments won't be counted against you when they figure out your SNAP eligibility or how much help you get. This is a pretty big deal for anyone navigating both Social Security and SNAP.

Real-World Plates and Pockets

Think about it this way: for a retired factory worker on a fixed income, every dollar counts. If they're receiving a supplementary payment from Social Security, that extra bit of cash is meant to help them cover rising costs, not penalize them by reducing their food budget. This bill ensures that those supplementary payments actually supplement their income without inadvertently cutting into their ability to put food on the table. It's about making sure that assistance meant to help doesn't end up creating a new hurdle. The changes made by this Act, including the exclusion of these payments, are set to kick in on October 1, 2027, as laid out in Section 3.

Under the Hood: Technical Tidbits

Beyond the main change, the bill also tidies up a few things in the existing Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. Section 2 mentions a couple of technical corrections: changing a date from "July 1" to "January 1" in paragraph (12), removing an extra "and" from paragraph (18), and renumbering an old paragraph (19) to (20). These are minor, non-substantive fixes, like straightening a picture on the wall—they don't change the overall view, but they make things a bit neater. The real meat of this bill is definitely about making sure those Social Security supplementary payments don't mess with your SNAP benefits.