According to data released by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) earlier this month, enrollment in the food stamps program is down by over 1.4 million since Trump first took office.
Annual summaries and monthly data now available to the public reveal that enrollment in SNAP, as of October, 2018, was down to 19,410,711. That number is over 1.4 million less families than the 20,839,269 that were enrolled in the program back in February, 2017.
The number of individual participants in the supplemental food program is also down by more than 3.6 million.
According to the Blaze , not only has the number of participating households decreased, the average amount of monthly benefits per household has also decreased. The funding per household change is being reported at about $5.48. While $5 doesn’t seem like a huge number, it becomes a pretty large number when you multiple it by the nearly 20 million families participating in the program.
The released data tables also show that during the 2018 fiscal year, the number of participants in the program decreased each month.
While it can’t be speculated that the president is directly responsible for the drop, the data does show a clear decline in enrollment and funding since Trump took office.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor , the number of unemployed Americans in the United States has dropped to the lowest levels in nearly 50 years during the time that President Trump has been in office.
March Food Stamps To Come Early For Some States https://t.co/ExWxp2rZm7
— yohelyperez (@queenmorena) February 17, 2019
The Blaze speculates the decrease in unemployment rates in the U.S. is a likely culprit of the decrease in food stamps’ enrollment as people holding a job either no longer need to be part of the SNAP program, or do not qualify for it anymore because of their current employment.
According to the Blaze , the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 4.7 percent when Trump took office. In the two years that he has been in control, the unemployment rates have dropped to 3.7 percent.
https://twitter.com/DM_dimntd/status/1095345299936161792
While the enrollment may be down for the SNAP program right now, things are dicey for those within the program as it struggles to recover from the aftermath of the partial government shutdown. In an effort to avoid lack of funding, SNAP benefits were released early for the month of February and are being released early for the month of March for several states, as many recipients failed to budget properly and ran out of January and February benefits early. Some states even have plans in motion to release April benefits early as well.
