Eighty-two thousand fewer Hoosiers are receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) since President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act took effect last October. This marks a 14.5% drop in recipients since October 2025, affecting thousands across the state.
The initial impact was swift. Nearly 13,000 Hoosiers lost their SNAP benefits between October and November—more than ten times the number removed the previous month. Another 12,500 Hoosiers were disenrolled the following month, with the number rising to 14,000 in January and peaking at 16,000 in May. FSSA data indicates that 30,000 Hoosiers were removed from SNAP prior to the new law, bringing the total to 112,500 from January 2025 through June of this year.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), which administers SNAP benefits, could not specify how many of these removals were due to ineligibility versus procedural reasons, such as missing or incomplete paperwork. FSSA Spokesman Tyson Runkle noted, “There (are) a number of reasons an individual may have been removed for noncompliance, one prominent reason is failing to provide requested verification information.” Indiana’s Medicaid expansion program is also seeing thousands of Hoosiers removed from its rolls.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, also known as House Resolution 1, imposed significant changes. It introduced new restrictions on which refugees and asylum seekers are eligible for SNAP assistance. Able-bodied adult veterans, homeless individuals, and young adults who have aged out of foster care, previously exempt from work requirements, must now prove they are working at least 80 hours a month or risk losing their benefits. The same work requirements now apply to able-bodied seniors until they turn 64. For caretakers of dependent children, the exemption from work requirements has been lowered, now lasting until their youngest child is 14 years old, down from age 18. Emily Weikert Bryant, executive director of Feeding Indiana’s Hungry, explained that failure to meet work, school, or volunteer hours for more than three months in a three-year period will result in benefits termination. New applicants are also now required to report the names and citizenship status of all household members and provide proof of Indiana residency. Seniors who once qualified for simplified applications due to age or disability are now subject to more frequent check-ins and eligibility redeterminations until they reach 64.
State-level changes have also impacted SNAP. Indiana’s Senate Enrolled Act 1 lowered the asset limit back to the federal standard of $3,000. However, households with at least one disabled person or an adult over 60 can keep assets of up to $4,500.
Starting next October, Indiana will bear a greater share of administrative costs for SNAP, paying 75%. Furthermore, if the state does not bring its SNAP error rate below 6% by that time, it will begin paying a portion of those benefits for the first time. Sunshine Beam, director of the Division of Family Resources within FSSA, estimates the minimum fiscal impact if the state does not comply to be $64 million. SNAP resources are expected to be a key discussion point when lawmakers craft a new two-year state budget starting in January.
Indiana’s SNAP payment error rate hit 9.77% in federal fiscal year 2025, which ended September 30, before the One Big Beautiful Bill took effect. This rate is calculated by examining a random sample of 100 SNAP households to determine the percentage that received too much or too little in benefits. Beam said the rate has been trending down since FSSA began hiring additional workers to focus on compliance, stating, “I’m cautiously optimistic.” She noted that errors are a combination of agency mistakes, such as missing key numbers or incorrectly reading paystubs, and recipients not reporting accurate household income or other necessary information.
FSSA reviews employment income and bank accounts to verify applicants meet income and asset limits, with Runkle stating that at least 30 days of recent pay history are needed. Quality control then reviews cases and conducts interviews with applicants before benefits are issued to minimize errors. Emily Weikert Bryant, however, questions whether federal and state changes to SNAP policy are contributing to the state’s error rate. She believes the policy, procedural, and eligibility changes “create an atmosphere rife for making mistakes,” arguing it necessitates retraining staff to different standards. Bryant worries that if Indiana’s error rate were to rise to 10%, the state could owe $127 million annually just for benefits. Beam, however, asserted that these changes “do not appear to have made the error rate worse.” Still, Bryant expressed concern about what would happen if the state chose not to pay for its share of benefits, noting the law is unclear on the consequences for affected households.
