Shelves of food inside the Pitt Pantry on July 8, 2025, in Oakland. (Photo by Caleb Kaufman/Pittsburgh’s Public Source)
Allegheny County officials laid out steps many supplemental nutrition recipients will have to take to keep benefits under exemptions for medical conditions and other factors, as clock ticks on new requirements and cuts loom.
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Thousands of Allegheny County residents could lose federal food assistance as soon as December due to new program requirements in President Donald Trump’s tax law, county officials said at a press conference Wednesday.
People who receive benefits from the federally-funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP] must complete a multi-step process to show that they are complying with new work requirements or have a valid exemption.
Those who don’t meet the new requirements or prove that they do can only receive benefits for three months every three years. The new rules took effect Sept. 1, meaning people will hit the three-month limit in December.
What are the new requirements?
- 20 hours per week or 80 hours per month of work, volunteering or training
- As of Sept. 1 applies to anyone age 18-54 without a dependent child under 18
- As of Nov. 1 will apply to anyone age 18-65 without a dependent child under 14
- Exemptions exist for physical or mental health conditions, pregnancy, caregiving or qualifying for unemployment compensation.
Key steps to keep benefits:
- Complete a screening form from the state Department of Human Services
- Have a doctor fill out a medical exemption form if necessary
- Return forms and proof of work to the state’s County Assistance Office (online, or in-person or fax)
SNAP recipients must complete a screening form and return it to the state’s County Assistance Office online or by mail, fax or in-person. Recipients must also submit proof that they meet the requirement of working 20 hours per week or a form signed by a doctor indicating that they are unable to work.
SNAP is administered by the state’s Department of Human Services, which may be scrambling to ramp up administrative capacity given the new rules were only enacted this summer. County officials urged people to contact an outside nonprofit, Just Harvest, for assistance with navigating the process of meeting the new requirements.
The state estimated that about 13,500 people in Allegheny County could lose benefits due to the federal law change.
“We’re deeply concerned that some of our most vulnerable clients and residents will lose benefits not because they’re not eligible but because they did not receive paperwork or take proactive action,” said Erin Dalton, the director of the county Department of Human Services.
The county is ramping up efforts to communicate the new requirements with the public and enable them to complete the process at community centers and state legislators’ offices.
About one in every six Pennsylvanians receive SNAP benefits, which are available to those earning below a certain income level. Almost 162,000 people in Allegheny County receive benefits, according to state data, and 35% of recipients are children.
The gross monthly income limit for SNAP eligibility is $2,510 for a household of one and $3,408 for a household of two, with higher limits for larger households.
The maximum benefit for a household of one is $292 per month, with higher amounts for larger households.
While benefits can only be used to purchase food, Dalton said the loss of SNAP funds could impact residents in many other areas.
“People may buy food with the resources they have but then not be able to make a rent payment or a medical bill,” Dalton said. “That could be what pushes them into homelessness.”
The White House has said the new rules preserve SNAP “to serve the truly needy.”
Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This article first appeared on Pittsburgh’s Public Source and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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