SNAP Work Requirements: What Changed in 2025–2026

ABAWD stands for Able-Bodied Adult Without Dependents — a SNAP category subject to a time-limited work requirement, separate from SNAP's general work rules. If you're an ABAWD and don't meet the work requirement, you can only receive SNAP for 3 months in any 36-month period before you lose eligibility, unless you requalify by meeting the requirement for 30 consecutive days.

The Act expanded the ABAWD age range from 18–54 up to 18–64, and removed the automatic work-requirement exemption that veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and young adults who aged out of foster care previously had. All three groups now have to meet the same 80-hour-a-month requirement as any other ABAWD, unless they qualify for a different exemption.

The Act itself was signed into law July 4, 2025, and the age-range and exemption changes took effect November 1, 2025, with related waiver-rule changes following a day later on November 2, 2025.

The Act also lowered the dependent-child exemption threshold (only caregivers of a child under 14 are now exempt on that basis, down from under 18) and tightened the unemployment-rate threshold states need to request a waiver from the time limit.

To stay eligible past the 3-month time limit, ABAWDs need to do at least one of the following for 80 hours a month (about 20 hours a week): work a job, volunteer, or participate in a qualifying SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) program. This 80-hour threshold itself didn't change under the 2025 law — only who has to meet it did.

You're exempt from the ABAWD work requirement if you are:

• Under 18 or over 64 years old
• Medically certified as physically or mentally unfit for work
• Pregnant
• Caring for a dependent child under 14
• Already exempt from SNAP's separate general work requirement (for example, working 30+ hours a week already)
• Defined as an Indian, Urban Indian, or Alaska Native under the Indian Health Care Improvement Act — a longstanding exemption category, not something new from the 2025 law

Being 60 or older exempts you from SNAP's general work requirement, but not from the ABAWD-specific one, since that now runs all the way through age 64.

States can still request a waiver from the time limit for areas with unemployment above 10% (or, in Alaska and Hawaii, 1.5 times the national rate) — several states already have active waivers covering parts of their territory, so check USDA's current waiver list for your specific area rather than assuming the time limit applies everywhere.

Source: USDA Food and Nutrition Administration — OBBBA ABAWD Exceptions Implementation Memorandum

Separately from the work requirement, every SNAP household has to periodically recertify to keep receiving benefits — typically every 6 to 12 months, depending on your state and household type. Recertification usually means confirming your income, household size, and other eligibility details are still accurate, sometimes with a follow-up interview.

Most people won't need to prove they're meeting the ABAWD work requirement until their next scheduled recertification. Your state is required to give you written notice and a chance to submit verification before cutting off benefits for a work-requirement issue — if you get a notice, don't ignore it, but you also don't need to act before one arrives.

If you were cut off and think an exemption applies to you (or should have been grandfathered in before your state started enforcing the new rules), contact your state's SNAP/EBT customer service line directly — find your state for the number — and ask about requalifying by meeting the 80-hour requirement for 30 consecutive days.