For Nebraska mother Alicia Freemont, the difference was $19. After a SNAP recertification, she learned in early 2024 that her income was $19 above the eligibility threshold, costing her $150 in monthly food assistance while she was a single mother working full time.
The issue extends beyond one household. More than 35 million people across the United States and its territories receive SNAP, which provides monthly benefits through prepaid cards accepted at participating grocery stores. Research cited by Newsweek has linked the loss of benefits with food insecurity and other financial pressures among working families.
How a Small Income Increase Can Trigger a Larger Loss
The Department of Health and Human Services defines a benefits cliff as a situation in which a reduction in public benefits equals or exceeds the earnings increase that caused it. For workers near an eligibility boundary, that can complicate decisions about additional hours, raises and higher-paying jobs.
“Small income increases may not be substantial enough to change one’s quality of life based on current costs of living,” Stephanie Gonzalez Guittar, an associate professor of sociology at Rollins College, told Newsweek. Freemont said losing $150 in monthly SNAP assistance led her to seek additional shifts at the grocery store where she worked as a manager. At times, she worked as many as 18 hours in a day and relied on her grandmother to care for her son.
Her circumstances later deteriorated following a serious car accident that kept her from working for several months. She ultimately lost her home and moved in with her grandmother. Now married and living in a household with three children, Freemont again applied for SNAP after a 2026 injury reduced her work to part time. Her application was denied, and the family has relied partly on credit cards.
According to a 2021 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, former SNAP recipients whose benefits had ended within the previous year had more than twice the odds of severe household and adult food insecurity compared with current recipients. They also had 80% higher odds of low food security among children.
Why SNAP’s Gradual Phaseout Can Still End at a Cliff
SNAP generally reduces assistance as earnings rise rather than removing an equivalent dollar of benefits for every additional dollar earned. The calculation partly uses net income and includes a 20% earned-income deduction.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, SNAP benefits can decline by roughly 24 to 36 cents for each additional dollar in earnings. Yet that gradual reduction operates alongside eligibility limits. Under the ordinary federal gross-income test, the threshold is generally 130% of the federal poverty level.
States can raise that ceiling through Broad-Based Categorical Eligibility. Nebraska has done so, setting its expanded gross-income threshold at 165% of the federal poverty level. According to CBPP estimates cited by Newsweek, about 8,000 Nebraskans received SNAP in 2023 because of the state’s higher limit, including roughly 7,000 people in households with children.
The higher threshold moves the point where eligibility ends but does not remove it. For Freemont, the consequences remain immediate. “I’ll skip a meal because, if we have leftovers, I’d rather it go to the boys,” she said.
