Food Stamps

Food stamps are designed to enable low-income families (with gross income at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level—about $23,000 for a family of three in 2008) to buy the food they need. Participants receive monthly vouchers that can be used to purchase food. Food stamps are an entitlement, so all eligible families may receive benefits, although in practice many do not. Reductions in TANF cash assistance caseloads since 1996 have led to declines in food stamp participation rates, because nonTANF families are less likely to participate in the Food Stamp Program. Rates among eligible working families are particularly low.

Food stamps are funded primarily by the federal government, and rules regarding eligibility and benefit levels are generally set at the federal level and are uniform across the states. However, states make a number of important decisions regarding application, reporting, and recertification procedures that impact program accessibility.

The Food Stamp Program was enacted in 1965. In 1996, national legislation barred most legal immigrants from the program for the first time, but reforms in 1998 and 2002 restored eligibility to certain categories of qualified immigrants, including children, the disabled, and the elderly. Other important changes were also made in 2002. These included giving states greater flexibility in administering the Food Stamp Program and replacing the flat household deduction used in benefit calculations with a deduction scaled to family size.