SNAP benefits are a ‘lifeline’ — especially for people with disabilities

Disability and Aging Reporter

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Kajeana Tillman spent the last few weeks not knowing if she would have money to buy her own groceries. She is one of millions of Americans with disabilities who rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

“I have $3 left on my [SNAP] card right now,” the 51-year-old told The 19th on Friday.

Tillman has a disability but prefers to be identified as “a regular person, just like everybody else.” She lived with her mother until 1996 when her mother passed away. Tillman then lived with her great-grandmother until 2001, when Tillman’s great-grandmother became too old to help care for her.

“I had to get my own place because she needed extra help. So I moved into a residence where I can get help too,” Tillman said.

She now lives in her own apartment in the Bronx. She has a roommate and gets services from YAI, an agency that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She shops for her own groceries and cooks for herself; Some recent favorites include veggie tots, chicken and salmon prepared in her air fryer.

“I’m trying to eat more healthy food,” she said.The Trump administration’s reluctance to fund the SNAP program during a record-breaking government shutdown has brought intense instability and uncertainty to a program 1 in 8 Americans rely on to be fed. People with disabilities like Tillman disproportionately rely on SNAP to survive.

As the White House has fought in court to block the disbursement of the benefits during the shutdown, some on the right have discussed SNAP recipients by invoking the “welfare queen” stereotype. On Newsmax, anchor Rob Schmitt claimed that women who rely on SNAP “are selling their benefits. People are using them to get their nails done, to get their weaves and their hair.” AI-generated videos of angry Black women have proliferated on social media platforms like TikTok. Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana, suggested that people harmed by SNAP disruptions should “stop smoking crack.”

“It’s a deliberate demonization of something that is a lifeline for people,” said Hayley Brown, a labor and disability researcher at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Tillman needs significant support to live her life, and people with disabilities like her have been largely absent from the public conversation.

She and other YAI clients have staff who check in on them throughout the week and who can support them in tasks like money management, grocery shopping and medical appointment follow-ups. YAI supports 590 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities like Tillman in living in their own apartments. Eighty-five percent of them, including Tillman, rely on SNAP.

It is difficult to know precisely how many disabled adults nationwide rely on SNAP because of how the data is collected and recorded.

“Food insecurity is defined by the federal government at the household level rather than at the individual level. That could be a single person household with a disability. It could be a parent with a child with a disability, somebody else living in the household with a disability,” said Craig Gundersen, a professor of economics at Baylor University.

Those living in a household with at least one disabled person experience rates of food insecurity about double those without. A recent analysis released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and authored by Brown showed that 20.4 percent of households containing at least one person with a disability rely on SNAP, versus 8.3 percent of those without.

This is, according to Brown, “a very conservative estimate.”

The food insecurity gap between households containing at least one disabled person and those without narrows a little if you control for income, but does not entirely disappear.

“Even once you subset those with incomes below the poverty line, or those with incomes below 20 percent of the poverty line, the gap is still very high,” Gundersen said.

Adults with intellectual, developmental or significant mental health disabilities may face additional barriers, according to Gundersen.

“Challenges [to accessing benefits] can be a lot greater for them than it would be for someone else. Oftentimes parallel with that are challenges in terms of loneliness and lack of social support. If those groups also have lack of social support, that will mean one less outlet that they can have to help during these difficult times,” he said.

YAI has a contingency plan to ensure that their clients with intellectual and developmental disabilities get the food they need, whether their SNAP cards refill this month or not.

“We certainly wouldn’t let any of our individuals go hungry,” said Gary Milchman, the agency’s CEO.

However, it isn’t possible to just give clients money for their groceries because it would impact their access to care.

Many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who rely on SNAP also rely on Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a cash benefit paid out to people who are low or no income and who have a disability.

Cash assistance is counted as income and can cause people’s overall benefits to be reduced or even eliminated.

In previous years, just giving food to a person on SSI could lead to a benefit reduction. In 2024, the Biden administration published a regulation changing that.

“The SSI monthly amount can be reduced by as much as a third if people get support from friends and family. The rule last year says that SNAP households are exempt and can receive food means the people who are going without their SNAP benefits right now have more flexibility to accept in-kind [things that aren’t cash, like food] support from friends and family members they wouldn’t otherwise have had,” said Darcy Milburn, director of social security and healthcare policy at The Arc.

Because of this regulatory change, staff at YAI will also be able to take clients like Tillman to the food bank or buy groceries for them.

The situation is even more complicated for the 800 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities YAI serves who need a higher level of support than Tillman.

“We have about another 800 individuals who live in our supervised residences, which are 24/7 supervised. We bring in all the food and we buy all the food. But we, as an organization, partially get reimbursed for those expenses by utilizing the SNAP benefits those individuals are eligible for,” Milchman said. YAI is prepared to spend up to $150,000 more every month without being reimbursed if and until SNAP benefits are restored, though Congress is moving toward an agreement that would re-open the government.

“We have to make sure everyone is fed,” he continued.

Tillman received her full SNAP benefit Wednesday. She doesn’t remember exactly how much it is off the top of her head, but it is the full amount.“Two-something?” she said.

She is happy and relieved she will be able to get her groceries like she normally does.

“I feel great. Wonderful. I’m actually going to go food shopping tomorrow,” she said.

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