Food stamps “significantly” reduced poverty during recession: USDA study

Enrolment in the food stamp program has grown rapidly, with 45.8m Americans taking part in August 2011, up 8.1% on the previous year, and more than 75% higher than in 2006, when about 26m took part in the program.

SNAP is one of the largest safety net programs in the United States, and this latest study​ found that it reduced the poverty rate by nearly 8% in 2009, the most recent year included in the research.

“SNAP’s antipoverty effect peaked in 2009, when benefit increases were authorized by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,”​ the researchers wrote. “Our analysis shows that SNAP significantly improves the welfare of low-income households.”​

The prevalence of poverty in the United States over the ten-year period covered in the study (2000-2009) was reduced by an average of 4.4% a year due to SNAP benefits, they found. The effect was greatest in reducing child poverty, reducing its depth by an average of 15.5% and its severity by an average of 21.3% a year.

An average of just under 10,000 people a day signed up to the program from August 2010 to August 2011, but the rate of participation growth had slowed significantly by then, from about 20,000 a day in 2009 and 22,000 a day in 2010.

In order to qualify for the program, household income must be at less than 130% of the poverty threshold, roughly equivalent to $29,000 for a family of four.

A recent report from the Carsey Institute found that households receiving SNAP benefits in 2010 had a median household income of $17,912, compared with the national median of $50,046, although 76% of families receiving SNAP had at least one employed member.

The average benefit was $289.61 a month in 2010, it reported, totaling $3,475.32 a year.