Adults on SNAP who are 18 to 64 and have no child under 14 at home can receive food stamps for only three months in three years unless they work 80 hours a month, and veterans are no longer excused. The change came from the 2025 federal budget law, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and it took effect on July 4, 2025, the day the law was enacted.

Ronald Ward, the Food and Nutrition Service’s acting associate administrator for SNAP, spelled out the new rules in an October 3, 2025 memo to state agencies. The memo tells states to apply the changes immediately to every new application and every recertification, so the rule reaches people as their cases come up for renewal.

For a SNAP household, the question is what has to be done, and when. Anyone in the 18-to-64 group without a young child must log at least 80 hours a month of work, a work program or a mix of the two, or qualify for a remaining exception. The three-month clock counts months without that, so keeping hours records from the first month matters more than waiting for a notice.

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Who is now on the three-month clock?

Before the law, the time limit applied to able-bodied adults 18 to 54 with no dependents. The memo says individuals aged 18 to 64 "are now subject to the time limit, unless they meet another exception." That adds roughly a decade of older adults, many of them in their late 50s and early 60s, to the group.

The parent exception also shrank. It used to cover adults caring for a child under 18. The memo changes that to a child under 14, so a parent whose youngest child is 14 to 17 is now subject to the limit as well.

Which exceptions were removed?

The memo says the law removed the temporary exceptions for three groups: veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and people age 24 or younger who were in foster care on their 18th birthday. Each of those groups is subject to the time limit again unless another exception applies.

The same memo adds three new exceptions: an Indian, an Urban Indian and a California Indian, as those terms are defined in federal law. States must verify questionable information with documents that can be reviewed.

What counts toward 80 hours a month?

USDA’s SNAP work requirements page says the requirement is to "work at least 80 hours a month." Paid work counts, and so do work for goods or services, unpaid work and volunteering. A work program such as SNAP Employment and Training counts too, and so does a combination of work and program hours that totals 80 or more.

The same page describes the time limit as SNAP "for more than three months in three years." A person who has used up the three months can regain eligibility by meeting the requirement for a 30-day period or by becoming exempt. Other exceptions on USDA’s list include a physical or mental limitation and pregnancy.

Do older USDA pages still show the old rules?

Yes. The consumer-facing work requirements page, last updated July 16, 2026, still shows ages 18 to 54 and still lists veterans, homelessness and foster youth among the exemptions. It also says USDA is updating its guidance on the exception and waiver criteria. The October 2025 memo is the document that sets the 18-to-64 range, the under-14 child limit and the removed exceptions.

Areas with a USDA time-limit waiver are handled separately, and the memo does not address them. For a veteran, a 62-year-old without children or a parent of a teenager, the open question is how a state SNAP office is applying the memo at the next recertification, and the state agency named on the case notice is the one that can answer it. The program’s main SNAP page links to each state’s office.

Need to prove 80 hours or an exemption before the clock runs out?

A household that cannot show 80 hours a month or a valid exemption can use up its three months quickly, and a veteran or an adult in the 55-to-64 range may be hearing about the rule for the first time at a recertification interview.

The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer lays out the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt, with a renewal and reporting calendar and a renewal document checklist, so the hours records and exemption paperwork are ready before the state asks for them.

Get the work-rule time limit and exemptions pages in the Renewal Organizer →

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.