Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients will suffer one blow this month when they get their March benefits, which will no longer include the pandemic-era increase despite still astronomical food prices. But they may suffer a second blow this summer if the West Virginia Legislature follows through on its mandatory employment and training requirement.
A work requirement, or job training requirement, is not a bad idea. But it has to be done correctly in order to be a boon, not a burden. And the Legislature is not doing it correctly.
HB 3484 states, in part, “the Department of Health & Human Resources shall assign all individuals who are over the age of 17 and under the age of 60 to an employment and training program.” There are some exemptions for people caring for very young children or incapacitated adults, as well as students.
Here are the two main problems with the bill: It is an unfunded mandate, and it doesn’t fully consider the ramifications of what it’s requiring of individuals.
Kent Nowviskie, deputy commissioner of the state Bureau for Family Assistance, testified that federal funds will in no way be enough to cover the work requirement; the state would have to give at least a matching amount — “That would be at a 50% federal-50% state match.” If all SNAP recipients are in the work and training program but there is no additional funding, SNAP would be forced to offer less (and lesser quality) assistance than it currently does for work program volunteers.
The exemptions to the work requirement cover a narrow range of people. For example, people with children older than 6 but too young to stay home alone or people without reliable transportation aren’t covered. The bill even goes so far as to limit the amount of additional exemptions the DHHR can make — no more than 20% of the total work registrants from the previous year. But it does nothing to help people work around obstacles, like offering child care while a parent attends a training.
And on top of all this, HB 3484 lays out a long, laborious process for the DHHR to explain to the Legislature, in writing, why it can’t successfully implement its unfunded mandate and what cost-cutting measures the DHHR will take to other parts of the SNAP program so that it can fulfill the employment and training requirement.
Instead of making SNAP a program that helps provide for people now while helping them become self-sufficient, HB 3484 will cause SNAP to give lesser-quality assistance to even fewer people.
