Many New Jerseyans on food stamps could see their monthly payments reduced, and 47,000 could lose benefits entirely, under Trump administration actions that also shift hundreds of millions of dollars in program cost to state taxpayers, according to New Jersey officials.
The funding changes come on top of new work rules in the food stamp program that could put benefits out of reach for some participants starting this month. Veterans, former foster children, and healthy older adults are among the groups that previously were exempt from work rules but now must prove they are employed or volunteering at least 20 hours a week.
Elizabeth McCarthy, president and CEO of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, said the impact of all these changes isn’t yet clear, but confusion is widespread.
“A lot of people just don’t know that this is coming, and I think that is one of the scariest things for us,” McCarthy told the New Jersey Monitor.
New Jersey’s food stamp program provides a monthly cash benefit — on average $194 — to help about 430,000 low-income families purchase groceries, feeding some 850,000 people statewide. McCarthy said 80% of these households include a working adult. Nearly half of households that receive food stamp benefits in New Jersey have small children at home and 44% include a disabled person, according to national anti-poverty advocates.
“It’s not as though people are not working. It’s just the compliance … is going to be very difficult for some people,” she said.
Applying and maintaining benefits requires people to upload pay slips, bank statements, utility bills, and more.
The food stamp program is also called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The changes stem from a law President Trump signed in July that also slashed federal funding for Medicaid, the national healthcare program for low-income people. In addition to expanding work requirements for people who receive food stamps, the law changes how the benefits are calculated, calls for states to shoulder more of the administrative burden, and penalizes states with higher rates of over- or under-payments.
State Human Services Commissioner Stephen Cha warned lawmakers that those changes could reduce what the federal government gives needy families by as much as $150 million this year and $270 million next year. Many food stamp recipients will see benefits cut by $10 a month, but some may lose as much as $100, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office
“Tens of thousands of SNAP participants are facing new hurdles just to maintain assistance,” Cha told members of the Assembly budget committee last week.
The federal law Trump signed last year revises how participants can deduct utility costs and how the government calculates food costs, among other things.
“Many residents who remain eligible for assistance could still lose coverage or food support because complex paperwork or missed deadlines prevent them from completing required steps,” Cha said.
In all, New Jersey’s program cost more than $1.9 billion in 2024, according to an analysis by KFF, a national healthcare policy group, almost all of which has traditionally been covered by the federal government.
State lawmakers are now reviewing Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s $60.7 billion state spending proposal, which they must finalize and adopt before the new fiscal year begins July 1. Her plan includes an additional $71 million to cover the increased cost of administering the program. While the federal government previously split these costs evenly with states, the new law puts 75% of these expenses on states.
The state plans to allot $61 million from this increase to counties directly to help fund the additional administrative costs that are expected to result from all the changes, according to budget documents, while the remaining $10 million would support new administrative responsibilities in Trenton.
Without support from Trenton, “this shift would place significant financial pressure on counties and could drive property taxes or reduce service capacity,” Cha told lawmakers.
County offices “are the front door for nutrition and health benefits,” he said.
Cha also warned lawmakers about another pending change to SNAP that could cost New Jersey an additional $89 million to $239 million annually, starting in 2028. That’s when the federal government plans to penalize states that have a high error rate, a measurement of under- and over-payments.
In a letter to members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Cha said the error rate is an “inappropriate and flawed metric” that the federal government is using to shift cost to certain states. He urged federal lawmakers to repeal this element of the law or delay its implementation for at least two years.
Assemblyman Gerry Scharfenberger (R-Monmouth) pressed Cha on what his department was doing to reduce the error rate and protect federal funding. The law calls for states with error rates above 6% to eventually pay 5% to 15% of the cost of providing benefits to their residents.
New Jersey’s error rate hovered between 2% and 8% over the past two decades, according to Cha’s letter, but spiked to 35% in 2023 when the federal government changed how it was calculating the figure.
“The reality is, it is what it is, and we have to deal with it,” Scharfenberger said at last week’s budget hearing.
Cha and his team said they are working closely with the county offices that process SNAP claims to reduce these error rates, holding regular meetings with staff and implementing additional quality control protocols. He stressed that errors do not mean there is fraud or other abuse.
“We are doing a lot to decrease those payment error rates. That is a constant,” Cha said, “regardless of how it’s being used, or how we disagree with how it might be described or interpreted or applied to us.”
He added, “We can always do better, let me make that clear.”
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