Efficacy of Safety Net Work Requirements for Parents

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The Issue:

Since welfare reform in the mid-1990s, eligibility for safety net benefits in the United States has become increasingly conditional on whether working-aged individuals are working or participating in work-related activities. Work requirements continue to figure prominently in policy discussions regarding assistance to low-income families. For example, in the debate over whether to make the pandemic-era expansions to the Child Tax Credit (CTC) permanent, Congress was not able to agree on whether the program should have work requirements, so the expansion was allowed to expire. Even more recently, proposals in Project 2025 and by the American Enterprise Institute, EPIC, and the Foundation for Government Accountability have also suggested expanding work requirements for parents in other safety net programs. Proponents of work requirements argue they will increase work among the low-income population, whereas critics say they take benefits away from the neediest households. To understand how the landscape of the US safety net would change if additional work requirements were imposed, we discuss new evidence of the impacts of adding work requirements for parents in the SNAP program on both parental work and family benefit receipt.

Proponents argue work requirements increase work among the low-income population, whereas critics say they take benefits away from the neediest households.

The Facts:

• The safety net in the US provides benefits to low-income families to help cover basic necessities. Following welfare reform in 1996, the safety net became more generous, but its structure changed. Support for low-income households with children shifted away from cash transfers towards in-kind benefits (food and health insurance) and tax credits, the latter of which require households to be earning income in order to access them (see here). Now, more programs are available only to households with some positive earnings and this has in large part been driven by the addition of and expansion of work requirements in the US safety net. Work requirements mean that otherwise eligible individuals must work a given number of hours per week or participate in work-related activities — such as training or community volunteering — and report this activity to their caseworkers to continue receiving benefits.
• The expansion of benefits for families with work income has increased resources for many low-income children, but the most vulnerable children — those from the poorest households — have seen reduced support. The largest federal safety net programs for low-income families in the U.S. are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid and the state Children’s Health Insurance programs, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). About half of the lowest income-households, those with income below 25% of the poverty line, receive SNAP and Medicaid but these households do not receive EITC or CTC benefits at high rates (see chart). Since families need to be earning income in order to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, the EITC mostly supports households with income between 25-200% of the poverty line. Finally, because the Child Tax Credit has the highest minimum earnings threshold to qualify for benefits, it only supports households with income above the poverty line. Recent work finds that overall, the safety net in the U.S. has become less progressive over time.  
• In theory, receiving safety net benefits could reduce incentives to work. In the economics literature, the canonical static labor supply model predicts that means-tested programs could reduce incentives to work for two reasons. First, as incomes rise, households tend to work less. Thus, an increase in the household’s unearned income would tend to reduce participation in work. Second, as low levels of income are required to qualify for benefits, there could be a decreased return to work from a reduction in safety net benefits as earnings increase. Some argue that making benefits conditional on meeting work requirements counters work disincentives and helps to ensure that the safety net offers only temporary assistance.  
• However, studies of safety net participants have identified important additional factors that make it difficult for some households to engage in steady work or increase their work hours. SNAP recipients often face barriers to work such as lack of childcare, transportation issues, or low levels of education that limit their work options. The volatile jobs and inflexible hours in the low-wage labor market — which safety net participants typically work in — can also make it difficult to find a steady job. Limited flexibility in when individuals work can make it particularly challenging for parents with caregiving responsibilities to increase their labor. Because many individuals who work low-wage jobs may not be able to increase or decrease their work at will, the static labor supply model may not reliably predict individual behavior in response to the receipt of benefits. 
• The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, already includes work requirements — although there is some variation in how these are enforced across states and states may at times seek temporary waivers for federal work requirements. SNAP provides support to purchase food through EBT cards (electronic benefit transfer cards) to about 42 million people per month. The average monthly benefit was $191 per person in 2025. Children make up about 40% of SNAP recipients. Although the cost of SNAP benefits is borne by the federal government, the programs are administered at the state level and each state has some flexibility to adjust eligibility limits and broad authority to take away benefits from adults who cannot meet or cannot prove they are exempt from a work requirement (see here). 
• The two largest work requirement and job- search-assistance programs in SNAP are the General Work Requirement and the Employment and Training (E&T) Program. Under the General Work Requirement, non-disabled, working-age (16-59) beneficiaries who are not working have to take a job if offered and register in the state’s online job search system. Those who are working must not voluntarily quit or reduce their hours. Failing to comply with General Work Requirements can lead to sanction and loss of SNAP benefits. Individuals taking care of a child under six are exempt from the General Work Requirement.
• In addition, all states are required to provide an Employment and Training program as part of their participation in SNAP. The goal of the E&T programs is to help SNAP participants gain skills and find work that moves them forward to self-sufficiency. States have flexibility to design and operate their SNAP E&T programs so the requirements and services vary from state to state.
• An analysis of work requirements for parents who receive SNAP in one state offers evidence of the impact of such requirements for families. The researchers looked at parents participating in SNAP in a state in which those subject to General Work Requirements may be referred to the E&T program. Those referred to E&T must complete required activities including meeting with a caseworker, doing online training videos on things like how to write a resume, and utilizing the state’s job board website to apply for a minimum number of jobs. Alternatively, those subject to these work requirements can instead start working in a job outside the home to meet the requirements. Failure to comply with E&T leads to a loss of SNAP benefits in the state. Using the fact that the head of a household becomes subject to General Work Requirements and can be referred to E&T once the youngest child turns 6, researchers compared similar households in which the youngest child narrowly turns 6 before SNAP benefits needed to be recertified, with otherwise identical to households in which the youngest child narrowly turns 6 after eligibility recertification.
• Complying with these work requirements imposes costs. These costs can be substantial for the neediest households; for instance, individuals working multiple jobs need to produce even more documentation to substantiate that they are meeting requirements or have to overcome obstacles such as lack of internet access. Employment and Training programs themselves can be time consuming: taking an average of 10 weeks and 12 hours per week to complete (see here). This can make it difficult for individuals to comply with work requirements even if they want to.
• The study found that when parents became subject to the work requirement, this reduced the benefit amount the family received. The General Work Requirements did not themselves have large or significant SNAP disenrollment impacts, as few participants subject to the General Work Requirement tended to be sanctioned in the state. However, being subject to this requirement opened up the possibility of being referred to E&T. The negative effect of work requirements on SNAP receipt is driven by those referred to the E&T Program because this program is more costly to comply with and is more likely to lead to a sanction for non-compliance as a result. The study found that referral of the head of household to Employment and Training programs is equivalent to the household missing out on 1.4 months of SNAP benefits over a six-month period ($669 in benefits lost over six months). This finding is of particular significance since E&T is unique from other work requirements in that individuals can complete it without actually finding a suitable job. So, non-compliance is not due to labor demand factors.   
• Being exposed to work requirements or employment training did not lead to statistically significant or quantitatively large changes in quarterly employment or earnings. The study ruled out changes in quarterly earnings larger than a $68 increase, and smaller than a $78 decline per quarter because of the work requirements. Similarly small and insignificant effects persist for at least three quarters. 
• Those who are already the most disadvantaged experience the biggest loss in SNAP benefits due to work requirements. Parents with the least amount of work history prior to the period of the study are the ones who are most negatively impacted by work requirements. This suggests these parents face barriers to work that also prevent them from being able to comply with the work requirements. 
• A reduction in family SNAP benefits can have long-term negative impacts on children. There is evidence that the benefits of nutrition support can persist well into adulthood for those who have access to the program before birth and during early childhood. For instance, prior research finds that an additional year of parental eligibility for SNAP when the child is in utero to four years old is associated with improved child health when the child is 6-16. Extensive research on child poverty finds that children who grow up with fewer resources complete fewer years of schooling, work less, and are more likely to be arrested (see here).  
• These findings are consistent with other recent studies on SNAP and on the impact of work requirements in other programs. Research on work requirements for the Child Tax Credit, Medicaid, and SNAP all find no large increases in work as a result of these requirements. Additionally, this research finds large decreases in safety net program enrollment when work requirements are imposed. Finally, other research has shown that work requirements lead to a reduction in total household resources, which not only leave parents in a precarious position but can harm children’s outcomes in the short and longer-run.