Hillary Seeger: Work requirements for SNAP benefits are not punitive

To The Daily Sun,

Regarding SNAP, I’m having a difficult time trying to figure out how having to work to get money is retributive.

The work requirement has many exemptions including people with young children, people caring for an incapacitated person, women who are pregnant, and people in drug or alcohol treatment, to name a few. One can also get credit for the 80 work hours required through paid employment, volunteer work or certain job training programs. If someone is worried about raising their income because of the benefit cliff, they could certainly volunteer and there are several volunteer from home options available. Look for Be My Eyes, volunteering (all you need is a phone), volunteernh.org (look up opportunities there), Smithsonian Digital Volunteers and for those who are bi- or multi-lingual, United Nations online volunteering. A person can even do a combination of paid and volunteer hours to meet the requirement. It’s not retributive in any sense of the word. It’s giving back to the community by employment or by volunteering, which is the exact same thing gainfully employed people are being told to do to fund these programs.

Hillary Seeger

Alexandria