People At Risk Of Losing Food Stamps Under New Work Requirements In North Carolina

By: Maria Hernandez

Jun 26, 2016

Starting next week thousands of food stamp recipients across North Carolina are at risk of losing their SNAP benefits under the new work requirements that requires them to work at least 20 hours a week. The new requirement goes into affect July 1st. This applies to able-bodied adults without dependents ages 18 to 49. There are some exemptions to the new rule, this includes doing volunteer work or taking classes. To find out how to obtain benefits, how to apply for North Carolina food stamps.

23 counties have already implemented the new work requirements back in January. The Social Service departments located in the remaining 77 counties, including mostly in the East, have been working hard to prepare. Many departments have hired additional social workers or created volunteer and job training programs. Pitt County Social Services Director Jan Elliott said if the plan is successful, she expects it to help the economy, “As long as jobs are available and resources are available, then I think it’s a wonderful thing for us to be working towards helping folks be self-sufficient, self-supporting, because that’s what most folks want to be anyway.”

Pitt County had surveyed people who are food stamp recipients to see how many people would be affected by the new work requirements. Of the 33,000 people who are receiving SNAP benefits in their county, around 5,000 will be held to these new requirements. Of those surveyed, about 75% have reliable transportation, 10% have a criminal background and 78% of the people surveyed have a high school diploma.

Elliot does not expect everyone to meet these new requirements in the next 3 months, but she is working hard to help as many as she can, “Anybody who has a desire to get [an] education, do volunteer work that would exempt them, get a job, we want to be able to help them do that.” Elliot is expecting about 500 to 700 of those people impacted by the new rules to get help through social services. They are planning to hold job fairs through October to try and employ as many people as possible.