The federal food stamp program, SNAP, limits some adults to three months of benefits in three years unless they work. The 2025 law known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act ended three exemptions from that work clock: for veterans, for people experiencing homelessness, and for people 24 or younger who were in foster care on their 18th birthday. The changes took effect when the law was signed on July 4, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture told states in an October 3, 2025 implementation memo.
The rule applies to what USDA calls able-bodied adults without dependents, or ABAWDs. Anyone who is not exempt and does not meet the work requirement can get SNAP for only three months within a three-year period, the USDA Food and Nutrition Service says.
Who is still exempt from the work clock?
Exemptions that remain under the 2025 law include people who are:
- Unable to work due to a physical or mental limitation
- Pregnant
- In a SNAP household with a child under 14 (the law lowered this from under 18)
- Excused from the general work requirements
The law also added exemptions for Indians, Urban Indians and California Indians, as the memo defines them. USDA’s general work-requirements page, last updated July 16, 2026, still shows the older list that includes veterans, homeless people and former foster youth. The October 2025 memo is the agency’s guidance to states on the current rule.
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An adult whose youngest child in the SNAP household is 14 to 17 is now subject to the time limit unless another exemption applies, the memo says.
Does the work clock apply to older adults?
The memo says people aged 18 to 64 are now subject to the time limit unless they meet another exception. Before the 2025 law, the range was 18 to 54, and states must notify people 55 to 64 of the change. The memo also says people 60 or older remain exempt from SNAP’s general work requirements and that states may not require people 60 through 64 to join employment and training programs. Anyone 55 or older should ask the local SNAP office how the new range applies to their case.
What counts as meeting the work requirement?
For someone who is not exempt, the standard is 80 hours a month. USDA says an ABAWD can meet it by working at least 80 hours a month, by taking part in a work program for 80 hours, or by combining the two. Workfare hours assigned by the state are another way to meet it.
Meeting the standard keeps the benefit going. Missing it for three months within the three-year period ends SNAP for that person, unless an exemption applies.
How does someone show an exemption applies?
The exemption has to be on the case file. A pregnant applicant, a parent of a child under 14 or a person with a physical or mental limitation can raise it with the caseworker at application or at recertification, the periodic review that decides whether benefits continue. Which documents each state asks for varies by state.
Veterans, homeless people and former foster youth who relied on the old exemptions now need to meet the 80-hour rule or qualify another way. The current rule is in USDA’s October 2025 memo.
Correction, October 27, 2026: An earlier version of this article said veterans, people experiencing homelessness and former foster youth are exempt from the SNAP work clock. The 2025 law ended those exemptions, and the time limit now applies to adults up to age 64.
Need to prove a SNAP work-clock exemption before the three months run out?
The three-month clock does not stop on its own. A pregnant applicant, a parent of a child under 14 or someone with a physical or mental limitation who never gets the exemption onto the case file can lose benefits for not meeting an 80-hour rule that never applied to them.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer covers the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt, and it includes a renewal document checklist so the papers for an exemption are ready at recertification.
Get the SNAP work-rule time limit and exemption organizer for documenting an exemption →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
