Food · guide
SNAP work requirements: who the time limit covers now
The 2025 budget law stretched the SNAP time limit to older adults and to parents of teenagers, and removed three exemptions added in 2023.
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Since July 4, 2025, an adult aged 18 to 64 who has no child under 14 in the SNAP household and no other exemption can receive SNAP for only 3 months in 36 unless he or she works, trains or volunteers at least 80 hours a month. Before the change, the limit stopped at 54 and a child of any age under 18 exempted the parent. The law also ended the exemptions for veterans, people experiencing homelessness and young adults who aged out of foster care, and added one for American Indians and Alaska Natives. States applied the new rules at each new application and renewal. The months counted are months with benefits, not calendar months, so someone who loses SNAP after three months can regain it by reaching 80 hours in a 30-day period. Waivers for areas with few jobs now require an unemployment rate of at least 10%.
Does the SNAP time limit apply to you?
Time limit applies
3 months in 36
| Ages covered since July 4, 2025 | 18 to 64 |
| Child that exempts you | under 14 |
| Hours needed each month | 80 |
| Your hours | 60, 20 short |
Without 80 hours, SNAP stops after 3 months in a 36-month period, unless your area has a waiver.
The rule in one paragraph
The SNAP time limit, written in section 6(o) of the Food and Nutrition Act and in 7 CFR 273.24, applies to adults the law calls able-bodied adults without dependents. They can receive benefits for 3 countable months in a 36-month period. A month counts only if benefits were received and the person did not meet the work requirement that month. Meeting the requirement means working 80 hours a month, taking part in a work program for the same hours, combining the two, or doing workfare. Nothing in the rule depends on income: a person earning enough to meet the hours keeps SNAP as long as the household still qualifies.
What changed on July 4, 2025
Section 10102 of Public Law 119-21 rewrote the exceptions. USDA explained them to the states in its memo of October 3, 2025:
- Age: the limit covers ages 18 through 64. The 2023 debt-ceiling law had been raising the upper age step by step toward 54; the 2025 law jumped it ten years.
- Children: only responsibility for a child under 14 exempts an adult, instead of a child under 18.
- Removed: the exemptions for veterans, homeless individuals, and young adults aged 24 or less who were in foster care on their 18th birthday.
- Added: exemptions for Indians, Urban Indians and California Indians as defined in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.
- Waivers: an area can be exempted only if its unemployment rate is at least 10%; Alaska and Hawaii may use 150% of the national rate, and may ask for a temporary exemption that ends no later than December 31, 2028.
The general work requirements, a separate set of rules that apply from 16 to 59 (registering for work, not quitting a job without good cause, accepting a suitable job offer), were not changed. That is why someone aged 60 to 64 now faces the time limit but cannot be ordered into a mandatory employment and training program: USDA told states they may not require it.
Who is still exempt
The age and child rules are the ones most people hit. The other exemptions in the regulation remain: being medically certified as physically or mentally unfit for employment, being pregnant, and being exempt from the general work requirements, which covers, among others, people caring for an incapacitated person, people receiving or applying for unemployment benefits, students enrolled at least half time who meet the student rules, and people in a drug or alcohol treatment program. The state decides on the evidence it accepts; a short statement from a doctor or a social worker is often enough for a medical exemption, and asking for it costs nothing.
Proving your hours
States ask for evidence that matches the activity: pay stubs or an employer statement for a job, a signed log for volunteer work at a food bank or a church, an attendance sheet from a training provider. Hours from several sources add up, so ten hours of paid work a week plus a weekly volunteer shift can reach the monthly total. If an employer cuts your schedule below the threshold through no fault of yours, tell the agency at once: the regulation lets a state treat a short month as met when a person would have reached the hours but for good cause, such as illness or a family emergency, and some states also run work programs that fill the gap.
How the months are counted
The 36-month period is fixed by each state, either as a calendar window used for everyone or as a rolling look-back from each month. A month in which the person met the work requirement, was exempt, or lived in a waived area does not count. A partial month of benefits at application, when benefits are prorated, does not count either. Keeping your pay stubs or timesheets matters, because the state checks hours when it counts months.
Regaining SNAP after the three months
A person who used up the countable months gets SNAP back by meeting the requirement for 30 consecutive days, for example 80 hours of work within 30 days, and keeps it while still meeting it. If the job then ends, the rules allow up to 3 additional consecutive months, once per 36-month period. Becoming exempt (turning 65, a child under 14 joining the household, a doctor's certification) restores eligibility immediately.
The state side of the law
The same law changes what states pay. From fiscal year 2027, which began on October 1, 2026, the federal government covers 25% of SNAP administrative costs instead of half, and from fiscal year 2028 states with higher payment error rates pay up to 15% of benefits (USDA information memo). Neither changes your benefit directly, but both give states a reason to check hours and exemptions closely, so answer requests for information quickly and keep copies of what you send.
To see what you would receive while meeting the rule, use the SNAP calculator; for the other conditions, from income to immigration status, see SNAP eligibility. People 60 and older have other advantages in the benefit formula, explained in SNAP for seniors.