Families caring for disabled loved ones face crippling SNAP benefit cuts. Jon’s family saw their benefits drop by 97.5%, jeopardizing his home care. Demand President Biden to restore SNAP benefits to the max for these families. Act now to support the vulnerable! Sign and share.
| Among those most heavily impacted by the recent cut to SNAP food benefits are families caring for disabled loved ones. These families tend to have much higher out-of-pocket expenses for non-covered over-the-counter medications and supplies. While most states continue to refuse to pay spousal and parental caregivers, the burden of care frequently precludes other employment. When coupled with the severe financial resource limits imposed by state Medicaid programs, these families are far more vulnerable to any significant benefit cuts. As home care becomes increasingly unaffordable, many of these families are under intense financial pressure to abandon care of a loved one to far more expensive institutionalized care. A case in point, Jon, is profoundly disabled and requires continual care which precludes any employment by his spouse. They have struggled to make ends meet solely on Jon’s monthly disability payment. The family was recently notified that their monthly SNAP benefit would be reduced from $516 to $13. This cut in benefits represents a 97.5 percent reduction in SNAP benefits and is nearly 30% of their monthly income! This benefit cut dramatically increases the risks to Jon’s continued care at home. To avoid his forced return to skilled nursing care, the family is relying on a GoFundMe campaign to replace their lost benefits. Jon’s family’s story has been featured recently on Seattle’s Q13 Fox and KIRO 7 news, as well as being recently featured on Scripps News Service. The latter of which is slated to be re-broadcast on their syndicated stations nationwide. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to end this needless food insecurity, but the window to address this issue is brief for many families! President Biden has the authority to restore the lost SNAP benefits to disabled Medicaid clients receiving care at home and their families. By executive order, the President can abolish the rule that requires that families caring for disabled loved ones spend 30% of their income on food and change the USDA rule to PERMANENTLY raise SNAP benefits to the maximum allowable amount based on household size (as they were under the COVID Public Health Emergency). Making these simple but critical rule changes would provide an vital modicum of financial security to these highly vulnerable families. No family already struggling under the strain of providing care to a seriously ill or injured loved one should ever have the additional worry about how to put food on the table! Tell President Biden to take immediate action to make this crucial change in SNAP benefit rules to support the disabled and their families. Thank you for signing this petition and please share it on your social media. Also, please visit a companion petition regarding this same issue at the state level. That petition asks Washington’s Governor, Jay Inslee, to take action to re-purpose a portion of the state’s projected $14.7 billion budget surplus to replace lost SNAP benefits to disabled Washingtonians and their care-giving families. The link to that petition is here. |
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