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New Yorkers who lost their food stamps for failing to comply with new work requirements can now reapply to receive at least three months of benefits. Meanwhile, SNAP participants will see an annual increase in their benefits, as the state grapples with federal cuts.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is going through several changes which took effect on Oct. 1.
These changes affect people who currently receive SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), people who recently lost their benefits (and now get another chance to apply), and the institutions that cover the program’s administrative costs.
For current SNAP recipients, their benefits are going up a bit. Depending on your household size and other factors, SNAP recipients may get an extra $8 to $52 per month. This is part of the federal government’s yearly adjustment to keep up with rising cost of living.
| SNAP Maximum Monthly Allotment Based on Household Size | |||
| Household Size | Previous Max Benefit | New Max Benefit (Starting Oct 1) | Additional Amount Added |
| 1 Person | $298 | $306 | $8 |
| 2 People | $546 | $562 | $16 |
| 3 People | $785 | $808 | $23 |
| 4 People | $994 | $1,023 | $29 |
| 5 People | $1,183 | $1,217 | $34 |
| 6 People | $1,421 | $1,463 | $42 |
(Source: USDA)
At the same time, those who lost SNAP benefits this year due to new work requirements implemented by the Trump administration—which booted 26,500 New Yorkers from the program—now have a shot to reapply.
City Hall is encouraging participants to do so by going in person to a Human Resources Administration benefits center, calling (718-SNAP-NOW or 718-762-7669), or going online (nyc.gov/AccessHRA).
The city is expanding community-based outreach to ensure people know the re-enrollment window is opening, officials said.
Erin Dalton, commissioner at the Department of Social Services, which administers SNAP locally, said the city helped “hundreds of thousands” of New Yorkers in recent months submit documents that show they complied with the new work rules, in order to keep their benefits.
“Still, 26,500 New Yorkers lost benefits, most of them young men without children,” Dalton said this week, referencing the 1.6 percent of SNAP households who lost eligibility after the stricter rules kicked in in June.
Those who lost benefits in recent months will need to go through the application process again and provide updated information about their income and household, advocates explained.
“These are families that may have lost benefits in the month of June, July, or August because they weren’t able to report adequate work hours, volunteer hours, or approved work-related activities,” said Jerome Nathaniel, the director of policy and government relations at City Harvest, a food rescue group.
Participants can get three months of benefits each three-year enrollment cycle without documenting their work hours, after which point they’ll need to comply or could lose eligibility again.
The third change to SNAP taking effect this month is a change in funding.
New York State will now need to cover a greater share of the costs for administering the SNAP program—75 percent, compared to just half previously—as the federal government pulls back on its own contribution.
New York’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), which handles SNAP at the state level, didn’t provide much information on how it would adjust its budget or restructure the program to handle the additional costs, which were approved by federal lawmakers last year with the passage of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“The federal government has unleashed a broad-based effort to undermine SNAP, scapegoat those who receive assistance from the program, and slash federal resources for a program that has long been a federal responsibility,” an OTDA spokesperson said in a statement.
The agency is calling on Washington “to repeal or delay for at least two years the SNAP state-cost sharing provisions” the spokesperson added, “and help ensure SNAP benefits remain fully available to reduce hunger during difficult economic times.”
While the federal government funds 100 percent of SNAP benefits themselves, it used to also fund 50 percent of the program’s administrative costs for states. New York officials estimated that this shift will result in an additional $220 million each year starting this month.
The state will cover $36 million of the cost shift, but local counties and New York City will bear the brunt of the remaining $184 million to be able to continue processing SNAP applications, recertifications, and to conduct program integrity activities.
Nathaniel explained that administrative costs become apparent in things like the application process.
That experience is what the SNAP administrative funding covers: the experience of applying online and the upkeep of the website; the experience of getting a timely call back from the SNAP office to set up an interview; the experience of being able to reschedule to have the security of knowing that they received your documents and they filed it correctly,” Nathaniel said “That’s what’s at stake and what’s budgeted for and covered when we’re talking about SNAP administrative costs.”
A City Hall spokesperson said that officials will provide more information on how they plan to address the funding shortfall in an upcoming financial plan.
Officials knew that these cuts were coming since July 2025, to the frustration of anti-hunger advocates who say they’re still in the dark about how the city and state will handle them.
“We’re not very close to what are the nature of the plans to absorb this,” Nathaniel said.
“I think the challenge is that quite often not all of the issue experts are in the room to help think through it with them,” he added. “So chances are we may hear a plan tomorrow that they were working on since July…but we were not at the table. So I hate to say it, I guess we have to wait and see.”
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