(File Photo: Source for Photo: FILE – SNAP EBT information sign is displayed at a gas station in Riverwoods, Ill., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) According to state officials, more than 59,500 Pennsylvanians have lost federal food assistance in the six months since the imposition of work requirements for program recipients. These changes were ushered in by the marquee tax legislation from President Donald Trump, which stripped away Pennsylvania’s broad exemption from job mandates that were attached to federal nutrition assistance. As of September 1st, 2025, that meant that many able-bodied adults without young children had to show that they were working or volunteering for at least 20 hours every week to remain enrolled in the program. Recipients of food stamps who do not comply are limited under the rule to three months of benefits over a three-year period. The requirements expanded further November 1st, 2025 to cover people up to the age of sixty-four and parents of children that are fourteen years old or older. People over the age of fifty-four or parents of children younger than eighteen were exempt. The Department of Human Services for Pennsylvania confirms that 59,578 Pennsylvanians were expelled from SNAP in these recent months.