Up to 80,000 more Marylanders on food stamps will have to show they are working, volunteering or in a training program to keep their benefits, according to the Maryland Department of Human Services. The state counts them as additional recipients pulled in by a wider federal work rule.
The department explains the change on its page about important changes to SNAP benefits, last updated October 16, 2026. It says the work requirements went into effect on November 1, 2025, and that current customers meet them at their next recertification. The 80,000 figure is the state’s own estimate.
Who counts as an adult who must report hours
Before H.R. 1, the 2025 federal law that rewrote parts of SNAP, the work rules covered adults 18 to 54 who did not have a child under 18 in the house. Maryland DHS says they now cover adults 18 to 64 who do not have a child under 14 in the house.
That is the test for the reader’s own case. An adult in that age range, with no child under 14 at home and none of the exemptions listed below, is one of the people the rule reaches. A recipient who is 65 or older, or who has a child under 14 in the household, is outside it.
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How many hours Maryland counts
The department says a covered recipient must work at least 20 hours a week, or 80 hours a month. Earning at least $217.50 a week from work also meets the test, which the department says is 14.5 hours a week at minimum wage.
Work is not the only way to qualify. The page lists working, volunteering, and taking part in a job search or job training program as activities that count. The department describes the reporting as showing the case manager that the requirement is being met.
Who is exempt and who is not
Maryland DHS lists several exemptions. They include being a parent or caregiver of a dependent child under 14, receiving disability benefits, receiving Temporary Cash Assistance, and receiving or applying for Unemployment Insurance. People in alcohol or drug treatment, caregivers of incapacitated individuals, and people physically or medically unfit for employment, documented on DHS Form 500, are also exempt.
Three groups that earlier rules protected no longer are. The department says “Veterans, homeless individuals, and former foster youth under age 24 who aged out of care are NOT exempted.”
What happens without the hours
The penalty is a time limit. The department says that if a case manager decides a recipient does not qualify for an exception and the recipient cannot meet the work requirements, SNAP lasts only three months.
The page does not publish a form or a portal for reporting hours. It says the case manager will explain, during the interview, what to do to keep benefits and how to show the new requirements are met. For someone already on the program, that conversation comes at recertification.
The size of the change for the state
Maryland says SNAP feeds more than 680,000 people a month, including nearly 270,000 children, at an average benefit of $180 per customer. The up to 80,000 newly reporting adults would be roughly one in every eight of those 680,000 recipients.
Checking hours also costs the state money. Maryland DHS says its share of administrative costs rises by $57.5 million, to $172.5 million per year. Whether a given household is among the 80,000 turns on age, children in the home and exemptions, and the department says that call is made by the case manager.
Does the Maryland work-hours rule apply to you?
A Maryland recipient aged 18 to 64 with no child under 14 who cannot show hours and has no recognized exemption is limited to three months of SNAP, the state says. Missing an exemption, such as a documented medical condition on DHS Form 500, can cost the benefit.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer covers the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt, in a section on the 2025 work-rule change, alongside a pack for each of 51 states. It is laid out so a recipient can match their own age, household and work situation to the rule before the recertification interview.
Get the work-rule time limit and exemptions guide from the Renewal Organizer →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
