Federal lawmakers sold work requirements for food stamps as a path to self-sufficiency. The research says something else entirely.
A new analysis from The Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative at the Brookings Institution, finds that work requirements attached to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program don’t move people into jobs. They just move people off the rolls. The review, which pulled together existing studies on the topic, concluded that “the best evidence shows they do not increase employment” while causing “a large decrease in participation in SNAP.”
For Detroit households already running tight budgets, that distinction matters a lot.
What the research found
Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at Brookings and associate director of The Hamilton Project, was direct about what the data shows. “Everything that we know about work requirements is that they do not increase employment among the groups that are subject to them,” she told Stateline. “All they do is make it more likely that they are disenrolled from the program.”
Bauer said years of accumulating research changed her own thinking on the question. She now argues that SNAP should be understood as an anti-hunger tool, full stop. Workforce development, job training, career ladders, those belong somewhere else. “That’s not an anti hunger program and it shouldn’t be associated with it,” she said.
Not a small position to take. And not a fringe one either, given where the evidence sits.
The law driving the changes
This isn’t a debate happening in a vacuum. Since last fall, states and counties have been sending notices to food stamp recipients telling them they must meet new work requirements or lose their benefits. The changes stem from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed last summer, which mandated cuts across social service programs including Medicaid and SNAP.
The law tightened exemptions that had previously protected older adults, homeless people, veterans and some rural residents from work requirement rules. Those groups now face stricter conditions to keep their food assistance.
SNAP enrollment is already dropping nationally as a result. And it’s likely to keep falling as states work through recertification processes and continue implementing the requirements, Bauer said.
The recession risk nobody’s talking about
Here’s where things get more complicated. SNAP has historically been one of the fastest-responding safety nets available to people who lose work. Laid-off workers could access food assistance quickly, giving them stability while they searched for new jobs. The program was built to flex with economic conditions.
Stricter work requirements undercut that function. In a downturn, the people who need the program most suddenly face the most paperwork. That’s a structural problem, and researchers warn it could make a bad economic situation worse if unemployment spikes.
Michigan already knows what that looks like. During the 2008 financial collapse, SNAP was one of the few programs that kept pace with need across Detroit and the rest of the state. Weakening its reach now, before any recession hits, limits the cushion available when one does.
What this means for Michigan
Michigan, like every other state, is implementing the federal changes. The state Department of Health and Human Services has been notifying recipients about the new requirements. Residents who relied on previous exemptions, including veterans and people experiencing homelessness, are among those now at risk of losing benefits if they can’t document compliance.
That hits hardest in neighborhoods where stable employment is already hard to find and where navigating government paperwork is a real barrier. Think about the east side, or Brightmoor, or parts of Hamtramck, where residents may have limited internet access, transportation challenges, or inconsistent work schedules that make documentation difficult even when they are working.
The research reviewed by The Hamilton Project, available through Brookings, adds to a growing body of evidence that the administrative burden of work requirements is itself a reason people lose benefits, regardless of whether they’re employed.
The Michigan Advance first reported on the Hamilton Project findings and their implications for states currently rolling out the federal changes.
What to watch
Bauer expects enrollment declines to continue through the year as recertification cycles catch up with the new rules. Whether Michigan lawmakers push back on implementation, or seek any state-level flexibility, is the question to track at the Capitol in Lansing.
For Detroit residents who rely on SNAP, the next few months are the critical window. Notices are going out. Deadlines are real. And the research suggests the policy driving those deadlines won’t deliver the jobs it promises.
