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Who Is at Risk of Losing Snap Benefits Due to the Shutdown?

AEIdeas

October 29, 2025

By Angela Rachidi

Unless the Senate passes legislation that reopens the federal government within the next few days (or the courts intervene), 22 million households containing 42 million individuals (approximately 12 percent of the US population) will not receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly called food stamps) starting November 1st.

For background, SNAP provides nearly $8 billion per month in assistance to low-income households in the US to help them afford groceries. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) that oversees SNAP has for several weeks informed state officials and federal lawmakers that, unless Congress acts, they do not have the necessary appropriations to issue SNAP benefits come November 1st. Nearly all Republicans in the House and Senate voted recently to keep the government open and SNAP funded, but they need at least seven Senate Democrats to join them to reach the 60-vote threshold necessary to pass the spending bill. Democrats in the Senate this week failed for the 13th time to provide that needed support, citing ongoing demands to address health care costs. If passed and signed by President Trump, the legislation would reopen the federal government (at least through November 21st) and provide the USDA the funds necessary to pay SNAP benefits for November.

The reasons for the impasse have been widely reported. Here is a summary of those who will be affected by the continued inability to pass legislation funding SNAP, based on data from the USDA.

  • 22 million SNAP households (including 42 million individuals) will lose access to benefits available to help them purchase food and beverages from grocery stores.
  • The benefits lost per SNAP household will vary depending on household size and income. Among SNAP households with children, 80 percent will lose $300 or more per month in SNAP benefits and among SNAP households with an elderly person, 75 percent will lose $100 or more per month. (Like the other calculations, this assumes that most states will not fund replacement benefits.)
  • 5.8 million elderly people living alone (27 percent of SNAP households) will lose SNAP benefits.
  • Among households with an elderly person who will lose SNAP benefits, 75 percent rely on Social Security and 35 percent rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the federal program that provides benefit checks to low-income older adults (some get both Social Security and SSI).  
  • 7.3 million households with children (34 percent of all SNAP households) will lose SNAP benefits. 54 percent of these SNAP households have at least one working parent.     
  • Twenty-two percent of SNAP adults are working-age (age 18–59), not disabled, and without children in the household. They may be better positioned to replace lost SNAP benefits, since 75 percent do not work.
  • 18.9 million SNAP households (88 percent of all SNAP households) include a US-born citizen and another 2.0 million include a naturalized US citizen (9.5 percent of all SNAP households). That means it is rare for SNAP households to only include noncitizens or refugees. Noncitizens (that is, green card holders) in the US for five years or more are eligible for SNAP, as are some refugees as permitted under federal law.
  • SNAP households can include undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for SNAP (in what are called “mixed status” households). A typical example involves a household headed by an undocumented immigrant who receives SNAP on behalf of a US-born citizen child. That is also relatively rare but notable, with 4.2 percent of SNAP households (890,000) including a citizen child and a non-participating adult, and another 1.2 percent of SNAP households (248,000) including a citizen child and a participating noncitizen adult (that is, a green card holder).

SNAP faces several pressing policy challenges, including substantial program growth, expanded eligibility, questionable benefit increases, and loopholes that allow undocumented immigrant households to receive benefits. Still, the program provides essential assistance to millions of households, particularly those including older adults and children. The debates driving the government shutdown are significant, as are debates over the future of SNAP. However, the shutdown is threatening food access for millions of Americans. It is time to reopen the government and restore access to SNAP benefits.