Scott Duke Kominers, Columnist

Food-Stamp Work Requirements Just Look Cruel

The rule doesn’t help beneficiaries find the steady employment that doesn’t exist.

January 27, 2020 at 12:30 PM UTC

Scott Duke Kominers is the MBA Class of 1960 Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and a faculty affiliate of the Harvard University department of economics.

And it’s boom times for food banks.
Photographer: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

In some circles, the notion that there’s no free lunch isn’t just a metaphor for our economic reality -- it’s taken as a directive. That’s the idea behind the view that to qualify for government benefits, an able-bodied adult should either hold a job or be in school. West Virginia has been testing this theory by imposing such a requirement for eligibility in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program -- more commonly known as food stamps -- in certain counties since 2016.

The state has hoped that introducing work requirements would increase employment among SNAP beneficiaries and reduce reliance on food stamps, which ballooned during the Great Recession.