Food-stamp recipients in nine West Virginia counties have another month to tell to state officials they're either working or in training before they lose those benefits.
"Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents" who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance in Berkeley, Cabell, Harrison, Jefferson, Kanawha, Marion, Monongalia, Morgan and Putnam counties are required to call the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources to report work or training intentions by April 30, if they wish to keep their benefits.
The DHHR announced late last year that it would reinstate a federal requirement that SNAP recipients meet a monthly work or training requirement of 20 hours per week or lose benefits. The changes took effect in January.
SNAP recipients who don't comply with the guidelines after three months are kicked out of the program.
With the extension, SNAP recipients now have until April 30 to let a local DHHR know of their intentions to work or train.
The change affects recipients ages 18 to 49 who are not disabled, without dependents and who don't qualify for an exemption.
Letters to the those affected are expected to go out late next week so that there are no interruption in benefits, DHHR spokeswoman Allison Adler said.
The DHHR and Workforce West Virginia are working together to offer affected people help finding work or training, Adler said.
The number of those affected is unclear. The West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy estimates that 12,683 people will lose assistance under the changes, though a DHHR spokeswoman said their agency's estimate is around 7,000 people at risk. Those people need to contact the DHHR with their work and training intentions.
While SNAP has limited recipients to three months of assistance for every three years since 1996, many states qualified to waive the time limit during the most recent economic downturn, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program. As the economy recovers, many states are choosing not to have the waivers any more or are ineligible for them.
West Virginia's waiver change affects people in the nine counties with the lowest unemployment rates.
Ted Boettner, director of the Center on Budget and Policy, called the change a "really bad policy."
"A lot of those people are homeless or an extremely low-income population," he said.
It's also important to point out that the assistance SNAP recipients get is federal money, not from the state, he said.
The change will mean an estimated loss of $24.4 million in federal dollars from the local economy each year, according to the Center on Budget and Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
Recipients receive, on average, between $150 and $170 a month, according to estimates from the group.
"This is a voluntary thing [the state is] doing, denying food assistance to low-income people is not going to put more jobs out there for people to take," Boettner said.
The change is a time limit, not a work requirement, he said. Even those who are looking for 20 hours of work each week but cannot find it will be terminated from the program after three months.
Boettner said there are not enough jobs for the people seeking employment. Others will be cut off for working less than 20 hours a week, he said.
People who are subject to the changes typically face barriers to employment, including homelessness, felony convictions, lack of transportation, or lack of a high school diploma, according to the center.
While the unemployment rate is lower in the nine counties, that doesn't take into account the people who have given up looking for work because they cannot find jobs, Boettner said. Overall, more people in the nine counties are unemployed now than before the recession, he said.
"It's not a great job market," Boettner said. "A lot of people have given up looking."
SNAP recipients may call their local DHHR office or 1-877-716-1212, before April 30, to report their work or training.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.