More than 6.5M Americans who receive SNAP/food stamps have no cash income

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more Americans than ever are surviving on SNAP/Food Stamps as their only source of income. The report, “Characteristics of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Households: Fiscal Year 2011,” showed that 6.5 million Americans received SNAP but had no other cash income in 2011 (14.8 percent of all SNAP recipients).

In New York State, 126,000 SNAP households reported no cash income, while another 331,000 households reported income of less than 50 percent of the federal poverty level. However, New York remains first in the nation of using SNAP to lift the highest percentage of these households above the federal poverty line (32 percent).