The Impact of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) on Monthly Poverty Rates

As part of the ongoing (as of this writing) government shutdown, the Trump administration announced plans to not disburse November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payments. This decision is the subject of ongoing political and legal disputes, but regardless of if payments are delivered in November or not, it raises an important policy question: How many Americans does the SNAP program keep out of poverty each month? In this fact sheet, we use data from the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy’s innovative monthly poverty measure to determine how many people SNAP has typically kept out of poverty in recent months. In a typical month, SNAP keeps 1.3 percent of Americans from experiencing poverty. This translates to 4.3 million people. While data for November 2025 are not yet available, given the stability of recent estimates outside of tax time, we would expect the loss of a month’s SNAP benefits to lead to more than four million people experiencing a spell of monthly poverty. Those who aren’t pushed into poverty - and those who were poor to begin with - will also be made poorer by the loss of benefits.

Suggested Citation:

Wimer, Christopher, Jiwan Lee, Sophie Collyer, Megan Curran, and Zachary Parolin. 2025. The impact of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) on monthly poverty rates. Poverty and Social Policy Fact Sheet. New York: Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University.

Published on November 07, 2025