600 Income Security:Set a Work Requirement for Able-Bodied Adult Food Stamp Recipients

Sources

Savings are calculated based on the current level of 4.5 million able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWD) receiving food stamps in FY 2013 at a monthly benefit of $200 (see Characteristic of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2013, Table A.15, p. 51. This adds up to a total cost of roughly $10.8 billion annually. It is projected that a work requirement would result in the ABAWD caseload dropping by half, yielding an annual savings of $5.4 billion.

Technical Notes on Scoring

CBO Baseline

Unless otherwise noted, calculations for savings for each recommendation relies on the most recent Congressional Budget Office baseline, as found in “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2014 to 2024,” published August 27, 2014, has been used.

Savings “Totals”

While totals for the five and 10 year savings are provided by section and for the complete set of recommendations, there are two reasons they should not be viewed as representing total savings for The Budget Book.

First, as noted in the introduction, The Heritage Foundation would recommend that the savings realized in the Function 050 Defense section would stay within the Department of Defense to strengthen the nation’s defense capabilities.

Second, the numbers cannot be deemed to represent the realized savings if every single recommendation were adopted because policy changes made in one program can impact spending levels in other programs.  Thus, the numbers in the table do not reflect any potential interactions between the various policy changes affecting spending or savings.