Food Stamps Avoided By Millions Of Eligible Americans:
FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Republicans say too many Americans receive food stamps, and that too many of them
obtain benefits fraudulently when they could just get jobs instead.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program's enrollment has risen from 26 million in 2005 to 47 million today, pushing its annual cost to nearly $80 billion -- but costs would be much higher if everyone eligible for benefits actually received them. In fact, contrary to the idea that America's poor people are collectively gorging themselves on food stamps, they're actually leaving food on the table.
Roughly a quarter of Americans eligible for federal nutrition assistance don't sign up for it,
according to the most recent data. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, says that in fiscal 2010 nearly 51 million Americans were poor enough to qualify but only 38 million received benefits.
So why don't the rest enroll?
"Some people don't know [they're eligible], for others it's difficult to navigate the process, for others it's the stigma," Ellen Vollinger, legal director of the Food Research and Action Center, said in an interview.
The program's participation rate has risen steadily since taking a dip after Congress reformed welfare in 1996, according to
research by the anti-hunger advocacy group. The rate varies, however, for different demographic groups. Older Americans are generally much less inclined to sign up for SNAP, with less than 40 percent of eligible seniors participating in 2010,
according to the USDA.
