When will the SNAP extra benefits end? Why are the COVID 19 emergency allotments ending?

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) emergency allotments, which were instituted at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, will end in February 2023, according to the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (USDA FNS).

This assistance will no longer be provided as of the enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. Households have been eligible to receive the maximum SNAP benefit amount for their size due to emergency allotments, with a minimum supplementary allotment value of $95. In March 2023, the state of Louisiana and the rest of the country will resume receiving their normal SNAP stipend.

States had issued emergency Allotments for SNAP families to meet temporary food requirements and relieve economic stress during the pandemic since March 2020, when the Families First Coronavirus Response Act was passed.

What has states done to keep providing aid to their citizens?

As long as a state’s emergency or disaster proclamation and the federal Public Health Emergency were in effect, states were permitted to give these additional benefits in addition to the standard SNAP payments families get each month.

Although the Public Health Emergency Order in effect in the state of Louisiana expired in March 2022, Governor John Bel Edwards signed Executive Order JBE 2022-10 extending the period of time that Emergency Allotments could be issued by the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) to February 2023. This made Louisiana one of only 28 states to do so.

Emergency Allotments totaled over $2 billion from March 2020 through December 2022, with DCFS averaging $59.5 million per month for that time and distributing it to 418,084 homes.

With the conclusion of Emergency Allotments in February 2023, SNAP payments will be distributed to each home according to the regular SNAP qualifying criteria, including household size, income, and housing costs. A reminder that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cost of living adjustment (COLA) raised maximum benefit levels, income limitations, and deductions for SNAP families as of October 1, 2022.

Monthly Social Security Retirement, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (RSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and certain Veterans Administration (VA) benefits were raised by 8.7 percent as of January 1, 2023, thanks to the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). As a result of this rise in income, some of these beneficiaries may find that they must reduce or even give up their SNAP benefits. All families with a negative Social Security COLA effect received a notification