By law, certain adults without dependents can only receive SNAP benefits beyond three months in a three-year period unless they meet specific work requirements. We refer to this as the “time limit.”
Preguntas y Respuestas sobre Elegibilidad Categórica y Vehículos
Broad-based categorical eligibility is a policy that makes most households categorically eligible for SNAP because they qualify for a non-cash TANF or state maintenance of effort funded benefit.
Here are some resources to find out more about SNAP ABAWDs and related information.
SNAP state agencies must establish procedures to screen for and apply the general work requirements and ABAWD work requirements and time limit. The SNAP Work Rules Screening Checklists and Flow Chart were developed to assist SNAP state agency staff in determining if an individual is subject to any of the SNAP work requirements.
ABAWDs can receive SNAP for only 3 months in a 3-year period if they do not meet certain work requirements. This page includes information on waiver status for states by quarter.
ABAWDs can receive SNAP for only 3 months in a 3-year period if they do not meet certain work requirements. This page includes information on waiver status for FY 2020-24 by state.
The purpose of this guide is to consolidate guidance and policy on serving able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs).
The following documents are located in the Disaster SNAP Guidance and D-SNAP Toolkit, but have been separated out for convenient access as they are among the most frequently used tools by states during D-SNAP planning, operations, and reporting.
FNS has estimated the number of new discretionary exemptions each state has earned for FY 2024. States that operated under a statewide waiver of the ABAWD time limit did not earn any new exemptions.