The 2025 push to expand work requirements would condition SNAP, Medicaid and HUD rental assistance on work, training or volunteering. Major changes include broader SNAP work rules through age 64, a planned Medicaid mandate of 80 hours per month starting in 2027, and a HUD proposal allowing local agencies to impose up to 40-hour weekly requirements. Researchers warn evidence of meaningful employment gains is limited and that the policies risk coverage losses and heavy administrative costs.
How 2025 Work-Requirement Rules Could Reshape SNAP, Medicaid and HUD Housing Aid
FILE - A job seeker waits to talk to a recruiter at a job fair Aug. 28, 2025, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)
The Trump administration made imposing work requirements on low-income recipients of federal benefits a top priority in 2025. Federal agencies — including the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development — advanced tighter employment conditions for access to federally funded health care, food aid and rental assistance.
Supporters argue that conditioning benefits on work, job training or volunteering will promote self-sufficiency and broader economic gains. Critics and many economists counter that evidence of employment gains is limited and that the policies could cause coverage losses, disrupt fragile work arrangements and create heavy administrative burdens.
SNAP
In July, President Donald Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill" expanded the USDA’s work-requirement policy for SNAP recipients categorized as able-bodied adults without dependents. Under prior rules, adults older than 54 and parents with children under 18 were generally exempt from SNAP’s 80-hours-per-month requirement. The new law extends the requirement to adults up to age 64 and requires parents of children ages 14–17 to document work, volunteering or job training after three months on SNAP.
The legislation also narrows exemptions for people who are homeless, veterans and young adults who have aged out of foster care, and it tightens the conditions for state or regional waivers tied to local unemployment rates. Pew Research Center analysis of 2023 Census data found that 61% of adult SNAP recipients had not been employed that year; the average benefit in May 2025 was reported as $188.45 per person ($350.89 per household).
'Many SNAP recipients work in low-wage, unstable jobs that are highly sensitive to economic cycles,' said Ismael Cid Martinez of the Economic Policy Institute. 'When the economy weakens, their hours and jobs are often cut, increasing their need for assistance. Restricting benefits can make it harder for these workers to regain steady employment.'
'Even if every nonworking SNAP adult subject to a work requirement started working, it would not move the labor market much,' said Angela Rachidi of the American Enterprise Institute, who expects poverty rates to fall modestly but sees limited broader labor-market impact.
Medicaid
The same bill also created new requirements for many adults on Medicaid that are scheduled to begin in 2027. Low-income adults ages 19–64 enrolled through the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion or under waiver programs would generally need to complete 80 hours per month of work, job training, education or volunteering. Exemptions are proposed for caregivers, people with disabilities, those recently released from incarceration, and pregnant or postpartum people.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that millions could lose health coverage because of these requirements. While most Medicaid beneficiaries nationally already work, experts convened by the Cornell Health Policy Center concluded a national mandate is unlikely to produce large employment gains and warned that administrative hurdles could cause many working people to lose coverage when proving compliance.
Georgia remains the only state operating a Medicaid program with work requirements (Georgia Pathways), adopted by Gov. Brian Kemp instead of expanding Medicaid. The program has been criticized for enrolling far fewer people than projected and for high administrative costs. Research published in the BMJ comparing Georgia with states that did not implement similar rules found no increase in employment in the program’s first 15 months and no improvement in access to Medicaid. Kemp’s office said 19,383 Georgians have received coverage since the program began, while acknowledging startup and legal delays.
HUD Housing
In July, HUD proposed a rule that would permit public housing authorities nationwide to adopt work requirements and time limits for rental assistance. A leaked draft described voluntary opt-in rules allowing local agencies to require up to 40 hours per week of work, job training or volunteering for adult public housing tenants and Section 8 voucher holders. HUD identified Arkansas and Wisconsin as states where federal implementation could be triggered based on state law if the rule is finalized.
The draft generally defines an upper age of work-eligible adults at 61 and lists exemptions for people with disabilities, students, pregnant people and primary caregivers of young children or disabled family members. HUD says the rule would set federal upper limits while allowing local agencies flexibility to tailor programs and add exemptions.
A review by New York University researchers of past housing work-requirement experiments found few clear successes: one modest employment increase in Charlotte, N.C., and several other jurisdictions that changed or discontinued requirements after finding them punitive or difficult to administer.
Tradeoffs and Next Steps
Policymakers face tradeoffs between potential incentives to work and the risks of administrative complexity, coverage losses and disruption to tenuous employment. Several proposals will undergo public comment periods and are likely to face legal challenges and state-by-state variation in implementation.
