Big Beautiful Bill encourages self-sufficiency and reduces fraud
One part of the Big Beautiful Bill is the change made to work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Nearly one eighth of the U.S. population benefits from SNAP, and many of these beneficiaries are abled bodied and capable of working. Despite this reality, many able-bodied beneficiaries are not working in conjunction with receiving benefits. The new changes increased the age range for the work requirement and required many to work, do job training, or do community service as part of receiving SNAP.
From The Daily Signal:
COVID-19’s SNAP benefit increases were supposed to be temporary. But the Biden administration cemented the boosts via executive overreach. The massive 23% benefit increase was the biggest one-time benefit rise in the program’s history.
Congress’ recent reforms to SNAP in the bill strengthen work requirements for able-bodied adults, make clear that benefit increases must be tied to inflation, hold states more accountable for improper payments, and tighten a longtime loophole that allows households to artificially boost their SNAP benefits.
Let’s look more closely at how Congress reformed SNAP.
First, helping able-bodied Americans on welfare get back to work should be a primary goal of the U.S. welfare system. Yet work requirements are scarce in the system. Only able-bodied adults on SNAP ages 18 to 54 without children have been subject to any work requirement. (Only recently was the age limit pushed to age 54 from 49.)
With the recent reforms, work requirements will now apply to able-bodied adults without children up to the age of 64 as well as to able-bodied parents whose children are 14 and older. The work requirements can be fulfilled by part-time employment (20 hours a week), job training, or community service.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act also seeks to reduce fraud by making states more accountable for improper SNAP payments. Currently, nearly all SNAP funding comes from the federal government, meaning states have little incentive to see that SNAP funding is spent properly. Now, states will be required to contribute some of their own funding to SNAP (up to 15%) depending on the state’s payment error rate (the share of SNAP payments made incorrectly).
Congress also tightened SNAP’s “Heat & Eat” loophole. This convoluted loophole allows some households to artificially increase the amount of their utility bill they can claim on their SNAP application. Households can then deduct an artificially boosted utility payment from their income and thereby qualify for a higher SNAP benefit.
Additional Reading:
Sheffield, R. (2025, July 25). Food stamp reforms in One Big Beautiful Bill Act promote upward mobility. The Daily Signal. Link.
It has thoroughly pissed off all the right people, I’ve seen a few videos of freeloaders BITCHING about how the free ride “they’re owed” has come to an end!
Before:
Ranger Stephen “Cio” Burrell will not be pleased.
You should have put “Ranger” in scare quotes, unless he is a forest ranger.
Absofuckinglutely. That lying sack-o-shite should never have the word Ranger capitalized next to name.
He is spending this weekend with Rita. Must be in a softball tournament. Cio said Rita was pitching and he was catching.
Sounds like he is looking forward to some severe pegging.
After he finishes duking it out with the 9th least toughest man in the world.
If I can work at over 54 part time then so can they. For me “part time” is 175 days a year. Lots of people are working well into their 60s and 70s. My ex started working part time when the kidlings were in 1st grade and just worked around the school schedule, including when I was deployed. She started full time when they were 6th grade and still made sure everything ran smoothly. 14 seems egregiously old but then there is no excuse.
If I can work full time at 62, so can they. *FULL DISCLOSURE*: I am an eebil triple-dipping gubmint employee. The big difference is that my organization actually works. Well, at least at our level. Higher up, not so much.
What’s triple dipping? How can I do that? I plan to retire from active duty in about two years.
I mean, I am a ROTC instructor right now so I aint in a hurry to retire. This is an easy job and I am already over 20.
Triple dipping is collecting a military retired pension, plus another pension from another government entity like the post office, then taking another government funded job. So basically, one gets three government checks every month and pay period. It is a sweet deal if one can pull it off.
If you retire when you are only about 40, then you can get another federal or state government job, retire from that at 60, and then go to work for some other government entity or government funded organization. In the case of SFC D, he may be counting his Social Security as one of his “dips.”
Sounds great. I will definitely look into government jobs after I retire. I believe I have to wait 6 months after retirement to apply for government jobs? Is that true?
It is definitely not true for state jobs. Also, if you get a law enforcement job with a state or county or city, you could retire as early as 55 in some locales. With some gov’t agencies you could retire with a pension with over 2/3rds of your salary.
Nope, not ready for Social Security. Yet.
If you are in good health, you might want to wait until you reach 70 to maximize your monthly benefit. My brother did so, and his monthly benefit is almost a thousand a month more than mine.
That’s the plan. I’m not touching it till I need it.
Granted, this wasn’t federal government, but 1SG Hunt was a JROTC Instructor at the school I frequented when I was on recruiting duty. He was an 11Z, enlisted in 1969 and served in the 82nd (missing Vietnam), recruited in the late ’70s, and had been a Drill Sergeant as well. Anyway, he retired in ’89 and started teaching JROTC. He retired from the school system in 2009, aged 57, and started his third career as a crossing guard. I’m not sure of his disability rating, but he probably brought in a decent combined income.
One minor correction. You can’t retire from a government job and then take another government job. IIRC, you’re barred for a certain time period from even applying, and your retirement checks stop if you do get another government job.
Well, that wasn’t the rule years ago. There were numerous retired NCOs back in the 70’s and 80’s from my last unit that years ago that took jobs at the US Postal Service. Now maybe they had to wait a few months. And that could only apply to a federal job.
The postal service plays by their own rules and nobody else understands them. My BiL is retired from the postal service, he’s tried to explain a lot of stuff about how they operate that’s just mind boggling.
Where I retired from, I had to wait 1 year before coming back as a temp employee. I also had a 75 day MAX time I could work. Day 76, and the pension and ins were cancelled, and you get to reapply for benefits. It took up to 90 days when I first retired, but the insurance stayed in effect, and about 10 weeks later, here came the checks, with back pay for what was owed, and have been coming in regularly every month on xx date.
Anybody with different experience, feel free to correct me or share your experience. Can you get your pension from the 1st govt job while working at the 2nd gov job, not including military pension?
I’m definitely already double dipping. I occasionally toy with the idea of a third pension but trying to make it worth while with something fun enough to do is the problem. You get to a place in life where the money isn’t such a big deal but challenges, work environment, and other rewards are.
I can tell you right now Social security has already decided to pay you 71- 83% of what.you are allowed. The are going to run out of money in 2035 and nobody in Congress has the will to fix it. We won’t know the exact amount until we get there. I am betting it will be even less. Anyone counting on money from social security is nuts.
But don’t take my word for it, check out their website.
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v70n3/v70n3p111.html
Army retirement + 60% disability + gubmint job = triple dip suckling at the gubmint teat.
Me too. 30 year Navy retirement, 70% disability (working on more), and government job. Life is good.
Now for those SNAP slackers, they need to get there dickskinners on a shovel or rake or something. Uncle Sammy’s pockets are getting empty.
Welp, I have to admit I fully retired at 69, but I did do a little freebee legal work for people before my existing lawer license period expired in 2016. But then I don’t collect any federal government benefits except Social Security, which I paid into every year since I was 16, except for the fifteen months I spent in the Viet of the Nam.
Hell, im out working two weeks at a time on wildland fires away from my regular full time job at over 55, so yeah, these candy asses get get to work..
Take a couple with you and teach them a skill.
Start the ad with… Looking for adventure? Do you enjoy mountain views? Changing scenery? Hiking? If so call xxx xxxx to apply. Boredom is not part of the job description, and the hours are long, but the pay is fantastic. Make new friends and see new places. Transportation provided.
It must have been a sweet deal sitting at home on the couch playing video games, watching TV, or whatever the cuttlefish does all day long and then eating your free food via the SNAP program. Plus, many of them were prolly collecting some form of disability payments while not being disabled. Grifters/scammers gotta do what they do. Too bad they can’t call it a JOB.
Yep. They are the ones praying for UBI and AI abundance. I think they are in for a wake up call.
AI will change what people call jobs; yes, AI will do rote work and require people who want to get paid (you know, a “good job”) think and produce results with what the AI provides for them. Yes, there will still be a place for people who know book-learning “knowledge” and can only explain (like AI does) that “intellectuals” feel superior doing now; it’s called being a janitor or ditch-digger. Enjoy, mo’f*ckers!
Half the deadbeats on Judge Judy are collecting SSI for one “ailment” or another. They had one fat piece of shit in his early twenties who resembled Comic Book Guy who was riding his skateboard down to the local Social Security office when he crashed into a parked truck, which he said ran into him. He lives with his girlfriend, who also collects SSI. Neither of them work, but her mother goes to work everyday. No idea how or why her mother puts up with two freeloaders in the house.
Worker a food stamp app for a dude who can’t work due to CHRONIC DIARRHEA. He gets 1600 a month because he can’t/wont stop shitting his pants.
For 1600 a month, I just might squeeze out a little shart.
Well, then, none of the Deplorable Garbage that frequents this blog will be pulling in $1600 a month for diarrhea, because none of us give a shit.
I’ll take a hard pass on the $1600.00 a month diarrhea dividend.
Rgr, these are also the ones who stopped paying rent/utilites during Covid, got the Pandemic UIB of 600/week and then racked up a 5K+ bill due for unpaid power and are panicking now that they’re due for disconnect. Sorry boo-boo, sucks to suck.
“Sir, how do you sleep at night knowing you’re disconnecting the power of a veteran with 3 kids?”
“Honestly sir? Butt naked with the AC on 67….”
I work in food stamps. I triple dip now (pension, VA, and county check). The amount of people SCREAMING about benefits being cut for homeless, no longer exempting vets from the ABAWD requirement, and pushing ABAWD down to 14 for people with kids is mind boggling. My favorites are the vets who get 10% VA for tinnitus/tendonitis, and then have been claiming disability due to “service connected disabilities” for DECADES are big mad the gravy train is ending. These are the ones getting 175/month in VA and spun it to agencies like Trillium paying the rent/utilities. They screech “it’s real messed up that I, as a VETERAN, sacrifice much for this country and now im getting denied MY benefits…..”
“Not at all sir, we are an equal opportunity employer. A disabled veteran who still chooses to work is the one denying your application today!”
I suspect that many getting VA disability benefits are not entitled to them or they are entitled to far less than they are receiving. Some of those who served in one of my units in Vietnam think they are entitled to disability pay just because they served in combat and were possibly exposed to agent orange.
It’s maddening. Or the ones who got out of the military on Friday and then at the welfare office Monday. I’ve done this job for 8 years and NOTHING surprises me anymore.
I worked on a farm at 15, enlisted at 17, at 21 I started in construction/real estate/building homes, by 30 I was running my own company and did so until I was 67. Unemployment collected: $0, handouts $0. I did qualify for VA benefits for leukemia about 4 years ago. I think people need to put in some effort and quit sucking the tit of government. My wife’s sister is mentally handicapped and has to have care takers daily, she didn’t qualify for food stamps/snap. She never had a job and can’t work. Mind of a 4 yr old. (69 yrs old) Only receives Social security. Our family has to provide a lot for her to eat and daily care. But illegal immigrants were getting $600 a month for SNAP benefits, heating assistance, etc. The system is screwed up. Those that should be helped are not getting the help needed. I say kick those lazy bastards off welfare.
It’s called SNAP because it’s a SNAP to get the freebees for the freebee ers.
If I was in charge, i would have passed a stand alone bill just so I could call it SNAP Back. I’ll think of an acronym later.
It would.be called “OH SNAP, you’re benefits are cancelled”. Two thumbs up. IYKYK.
Don’t know what you’d call me (just don’t call me late for dinner).
1-Twenty years Army retirement pay.
2-SocSec (started at 70)
3-Still working