Earlier today we reviewed details about a proposal to expand work requirements in safety net programs. Below we outline some additional questions and answers about work requirements in US safety net policy.
Why is requiring work good for low-income adults?
Higher labor-force participation translates to less poverty, and employment correlates to many other nonfinancial benefits, such as better physical and mental health. Encouraging work among benefit recipients gives them an opportunity to escape poverty and achieve upward mobility without depending on government assistance.
Research has shown that work requirements can increase employment levels, which benefits individuals and families. For example, research on TANF shows that work requirements increased employment levels on average, although the verdict is still out when it comes to examining work requirements in SNAP and Medicaid, mainly due to data limitations. However, TANF’s impact on employment and the overall well-being among single-mother families suggests that the same positive effects could result from taking a similar approach in SNAP and Medicaid.
What are the expected impacts on low-income adults?
The proposed SNAP changes would expect more able-bodied adults without dependents (that is, those ages 50 through 55) to work or prepare for work in exchange for SNAP benefits. The Medicaid policies in the proposal would reinforce this with an expectation of at least community service by able-bodied adults under age 56 who are without dependents and collecting only Medicaid benefits (and thus not otherwise covered by the SNAP policy). When similar policies were included in the 1996 welfare reforms, work and earnings by individuals in affected groups (including those at risk of going on benefits) rose while dependence on benefits and poverty declined.
How would this affect spending on benefits?
Details are pending, but more work and greater earnings among participants will reduce or in some cases eliminate some recipients’ eligibility for benefits, with the result being smaller caseloads and less dependence. Experience with TANF suggests that other current recipients who are working under the table or who fail to comply with work requirements may also lose eligibility for benefits.
For these reasons, work requirements tend to slow the growth in spending on welfare benefits, which is scored as budget savings. Historical context is important in judging the effects of these policies, as SNAP and Medicaid spending have grown rapidly in recent years. For example, federal SNAP spending was $69.8 billion in FY2019 (in 2022 dollars) and rose to $119 billion in FY 2022 due to benefit increases and emergency pandemic measures; a 70 percent increase in three years. Similarly, Medicaid spending (which includes both state and federal funds) was $669.8 billion in 2019 (in 2021 dollars) and rose to $734 in FY2021, a 9.6 percent increase in constant dollars over just two years.
Even with the application of these proposed work requirements, spending on key means-tested benefit programs will be significantly greater than pre-pandemic levels and is expected to continue to grow significantly in the coming years, albeit at a slightly slower pace.
Do voters support work requirements?
Voters broadly support work requirements, contributing to bipartisan efforts in the past. For example, a Republican Congress drafted the 1996 welfare reforms creating TANF work requirements, which Democratic President Bill Clinton signed into law. More than half of congressional Democrats joined nearly all Republicans in supporting that legislation.
This is because polls regularly find large majorities support work requirements for welfare benefits—including a majority of Democrats. For example, a 2016 AEI and Los Angeles Times survey found that 87% of respondents favored a work requirement, including strong support among the poor (81%).
More recently, a February 2023 YouGov poll found “Two-thirds of Americans (68%) say that people who receive assistance from welfare programs in the U.S. should be required to work or participate in job training programs if they are able to. Republicans (83%) are more likely than Democrats (64%) and Independents (61%) to say work participation should be required.” Additionally, an April 4, 2023 ballot measure showed that almost 80 percent of Wisconsin voters said able-bodied childless adults should be expected to look for work to receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits.
Why are House Republicans proposing this now?
While the need to raise the debt ceiling provides a legislative opportunity, the work requirements proposed by House Republicans have a long history. In 2018, the House passed a Farm Bill that included expansions to SNAP’s work requirements that went even further than the current proposal. In 2018, the House Ways and Means Committee approved legislation that included the pro-work TANF provisions in this proposal. And the Trump administration approved waivers allowing states to create Medicaid work requirements. Policymakers are reviving these proposals as part of the debt ceiling legislation, arguing they will grow the economy by helping more low-income adults enter work and obtain higher earnings, addressing current labor shortages along the way.
