Cutting Off SNAP Benefits Will Hurt People With Chronic Pain
/By Crystal Lindell
The only thing worse than chronic pain is chronic pain with hunger.
But that’s exactly the situation we are about to plunge millions of Americans into if SNAP benefits don’t go out in November.
The food stamp program — more formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — provides money for groceries to those with a low income. And it looks to be one of the many casualties of the current federal government shutdown.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed this week that they will not use emergency funds to cover November disbursements. So unless the government reopens or the Trump administration changes its mind, about 42 million low-income people won’t have enough money to buy all the food they need.
And make no mistake, cutting off SNAP benefits in November will hurt people with chronic pain. While most people might not connect food aid with chronic pain, there is a significant overlap.
According to the CDC, over half of disabled Americans (52.4%) have chronic pain, while the most recent USDA data show that nearly four in five (79%) SNAP households includes a child or adult with a disability. Those households receive 83% of SNAP benefits.
But the statistics don’t tell the full story. There are many people who are in too much pain to work full-time jobs that would pay enough to cover their household expenses — yet they are not disabled enough to qualify as fully “disabled” by government standards.
Those people often rely on government programs like SNAP to make ends meet.
There are a lot of people who think that too many people get SNAP, and that cutting off benefits or adopting tougher work requirements will cause a needed reset.
But my experience is that not enough people get SNAP. In fact, I would support expanding the program to help as many “disabled but not technically disabled” people as possible.
The number one thing I hear people say when they complain about programs like SNAP is essentially: “It’s not fair. I need it and don’t get it. Therefore fewer people should get it.”
But in reality, the conclusion should be the opposite. If you need a government aid program and can’t get it, the solution should be to expand access to that program – not to cut the program off for others.
The average SNAP recipient gets $177 per month in food aid. Would you be able to buy enough food to survive on less than $6 a day?
I also worry that if SNAP benefits end next month, they might not ever go out again. Once you upend a social program, it’s easy to continue on that path.
I believe it’s a sign of our deep cultural rot that cutting off SNAP is even a possibility. It’s telling that an anonymous donor volunteered to give the government $130 million dollars to fund military pay during the shutdown, but no such donor has appeared to contribute to SNAP aid.
Our priorities have skewed so far in the wrong direction, that we now spend billions on the military to protect citizens we can’t even feed. What is even the point of that?
My hope is that society will prove me wrong – and that the moral rot I fear is still fresh enough to be hacked off. Push back from voters and advocacy groups could pressure the government to find a way to go forward with the November SNAP disbursement.
Only time will tell whether America still values feeding people as much as it claims to want to protect them.
