As SNAP benefits are back following a 43-day government shutdown, millions of recipients may have to meet new work requirements to continue receiving them.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was put on a pause during the historic government shutdown from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025. As recipients across the nation now finally have their benefits back, they’re facing a potential new problem: increased work requirements.
During the 2024 fiscal year, 15.7% of the Illinois population received SNAP benefits and about 1.09 million households received SNAP benefits. The Champaign County office reported 15,768 households received benefits in September, which plummeted to 1,789 in November due to the shutdown.
The food assistance program has faced budget restraints due to President Trump’s proposed budget. In July 2025, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, resulting in drastic cuts to healthcare, food assistance, student loans and energy programs in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals.
As mandated in the bill, people enrolled in the program will be required to work or participate in job training for at least 20 hours per week or 80 hours per month, or they will only receive SNAP benefits for three months out of every three years. Prior to the enforcement of the Big Beautiful Bill, these requirements were very different.
Previously, those under the age of 18 or over 64 were exempt. However, people aged 50-64 are now included in the work requirement.
On Oct. 29, during the shutdown, the nonprofit Chicago Coalition to End Homelessness hosted a public webinar about the changes, updates, and new impacts to SNAP.
Gwynne Kizer Mashon, the associate director in the Public Benefits Practice Group for Legal Aid Chicago, spoke in the virtual panel about upcoming deadlines for people to keep their benefits.
“If someone is receiving SNAP and they’re not exempt and they’re not complying or able to show that they’re complying, they’ll get SNAP for December, January, and February, and then they will be terminated from SNAP starting in March of 2026,” Mashon said.
If recipients fail to meet the new standards by next March, they won’t be eligible for reactivation until Jan. 1, 2027.
“Our focus right now has been trying to help people who are exempt, show that they are exempt, and get that information into the department,” Mashon said.
Those eligible for exemption from these new work requirements are individuals who are pregnant, physically or mentally unable to work, caring for a young child under the age of 14, or incapacitated person, a student, homeless or in Native American/Alaska Native groups.
The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District offers an interactive food pantry map, a list of other food resources available and a printable list on its website. Lists are available in English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Dari, Korean and Pashto.
SNAP a historic program, resource for families
As SNAP is changing, the program’s history dates all the way back to the Great Depression.
The program began as a temporary program from 1939 to 1943 during the Great Depression. These benefits are eligible to be used to buy any food or food product for human consumption, as well as seeds and plants for use in home gardens to produce food.
The first recipients of food stamps were Mr. and Mrs. Alderson Muncy of Paynesville, West Virginia, on May 29, 1961. Nearly 65 years later, SNAP still serves as a resource for middle- and low-income families.
The future of the program in the next several months is uncertain. Some of the key changes to SNAP requirements outside of increasing work requirements include increasing state obligations for benefit costs.
“Working families across Illinois are about to go without food assistance because Trump and Congressional Republicans want to score political points and refuse to reach a deal that reopens the federal government. Nearly two million Illinoisians rely on SNAP benefits to put food on the table, including households with children, older adults, and people with disabilities,” Illinois Governor Pritzker said in a press release.
The shutdown ended on Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025, when President Trump signed a funding bill. The agreement included a temporary resolution to fund most government agencies through Jan. 30, 2026. In exchange for the end to the shutdown, the bill also came to a vote on Affordable Care Act tax credits in December.