Adults on food stamps up to age 64 now fall under the program’s work time limit, ten years past the age 54 cutoff that applied before. Veterans and homeless adults no longer get an automatic exemption from it either, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says in an implementation memo to state SNAP agencies. Food stamps are formally the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The changes come from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, and they took effect when the law was enacted.
Ages 55 to 64 are now covered
The memo was signed October 3, 2025, by Ronald Ward, the acting associate administrator for SNAP at USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service. It says “individuals aged 18 to 64 are now subject to the time limit.” Before the law, the limit stopped at 54. A footnote explains that a 2023 law had been raising the top age in steps, from 49 to 54, through fiscal year 2030, and the new law replaced that schedule with a flat 64.
States have to update their notices so that people 55 to 64 know the rule now applies to them. They must also give each household a written notice and an oral explanation of all the work requirements. One carve-out for the oldest group: states may not require people 60 to 64 to take part in mandatory SNAP employment and training.
Veterans, homeless adults and former foster youth
The same memo lists three groups whose exceptions were removed: homeless individuals, veterans, and people 24 or younger who were in foster care on their 18th birthday. USDA says they are subject to the time limit again unless they meet some other exception.
Parents lost ground too. The exception for a parent or household member responsible for a child now stops at a child under 14. It used to cover children under 18, so an adult whose youngest child is 14 to 17 is now counted under the time limit unless another exception fits.
For anyone 55 to 64 on SNAP, for veterans and homeless adults under 65, and for parents of teenagers, the question is whether an exception still applies and how many work hours a month have to be shown to the caseworker.
Every SNAP adult between 55 and 64 now has a three-months-in-three-years clock to watch. The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer sets out the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt.
Get the time limit and exemption rules in the SNAP Renewal Organizer →
How the time limit works
The rule applies to able-bodied adults without dependents, who USDA’s SNAP work requirements page says can receive benefits for no more than three months in every three years. The way to keep benefits is to work or join a work program for at least 80 hours a month. Paid work counts, and so do unpaid work, volunteering, a SNAP employment and training program, or a mix of those that adds up to 80 hours. Some people are assigned workfare hours instead, based on their benefit amount.
Benefits end after the third month without enough hours. To get SNAP back, a person has to meet the requirement for a 30-day stretch or become exempt. Otherwise the person waits until the three-year period ends and gets another three months.
Who is still exempt
The memo adds a new exception for tribal members. It covers people defined as “Indians,” “Urban Indians” and “California Indians” in the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which generally means members of federally recognized tribes and certain descendants. States must verify questionable claims with documents.
USDA’s work requirements page also lists adults who are pregnant and adults unable to work because of a physical or mental limitation among those excused. The memo itself does not discuss those two exceptions and sends states to their USDA regional offices for questions it leaves open.
A separate memo from September 4, 2025 adds that Alaska and Hawaii can ask for exemptions from the work rules if they show a good-faith effort, and those expire no later than December 31, 2028. Other states can request time-limit waivers only where area unemployment is at least 10 percent.
Who pays: the state side of the law
The law also shifts SNAP costs to states. Starting in fiscal year 2027, USDA’s share of state administrative costs falls to 25 percent from 50 percent. Starting generally in fiscal year 2028, states must cover 0 to 15 percent of benefit costs, with the share set by each state’s payment error rate, according to the September memo.
The changes are already reaching households. ABC News reported on September 30, 2026, that about 5 million Americans have lost SNAP over the past year, a figure from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and that states now carry 75 percent of administrative costs.
Checking the time limit with the state office
The caseworker at the local SNAP office decides whether an exception applies, so the first step is to ask which one the state has on file. USDA’s memo page, updated September 15, 2026, links the full text, and the work requirements page explains the 80-hour rule and the other exemptions. Households can ask the state for the written notice on work requirements that the memo says every household must get.
It helps to collect proof before the third month runs out. Pay stubs, a volunteer coordinator’s signed hours, attendance records from an employment program, tribal enrollment papers, a doctor’s note about a limitation and a child’s birth date each answer a different part of the question. Veterans and homeless adults who relied on the old exemption should bring the same papers, since the exemption itself is gone.
The memo notes that guidance documents do not carry the force of law unless a statute authorizes them. Questions it leaves unanswered, such as how pregnancy and disability exceptions apply, go to USDA’s regional offices, which state agencies can reach.
The old veteran and homeless exemptions no longer count
A SNAP adult who still counts on an exemption that Congress removed can find benefits ending after the third month, with the work hours never recorded. The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer covers the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt, in a 20-page organizer built for this kind of recertification question.
Find where the SNAP time limit applies in the Renewal Organizer →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
