Congress Is Debating Stricter SNAP and Medicaid Work Requirements—But Research Shows They Don’t Work
“As congressional Republicans begin to fill in the details of President Donald Trump’s economic agenda, one proposal is expanded work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid. This raises a critical question: Are lawmakers forming policy through evidence-based decisions or through ideological preconceptions about poverty that ignore the complex and harsh realities low-income Americans face?
Proponents of work requirements argue that they incentivize employment and promote self-sufficiency. But decades of economic research tell a different story: Work requirements do little to increase employment and often strip essential benefits from society’s most vulnerable, while also adding bureaucratic barriers that disproportionately harm those already struggling. Other research consistently finds that stricter work requirements for both SNAP and Medicaid fail to increase labor market participation—undermining popular claims that they promote self-sufficiency.
From a policy perspective, work requirements encourage a punitive view of welfare—framing it as a liability rather than an integral investment in economic support for low-income communities. This piece examines recent economic research studying the efficacy of work requirements for SNAP and Medicaid on labor market outcomes and program participation rates.”
Read more at the Brookings Institution.