New York’s SNAP Rolls Fell by 272,988 People in a Year, Leaving About 2.67 Million on Food Aid, New USDA Figures Show

Between June and July alone, New York’s food stamp program lost 53,435 people. That one-month slide capped a year in which the state’s SNAP rolls fell from 2,940,513 to 2,667,525, a drop of 272,988 people, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest state table, dated Oct. 9.

About 2.67 million New Yorkers still get help buying groceries. The drop works out to 9.3%, and it came after federal work rules reached the state on March 1 and the first cutoffs under those rules began in June.

The count: roughly 1 in 11 recipients gone in a year

USDA’s table lists New York at 2,940,513 participants in July 2025, 2,720,960 in June 2026 and 2,667,525 in July 2026. The June-to-July change was a 2.0% decline, nearly double Virginia’s 1.1% monthly dip in the same table.

The agency labels its June and July 2026 figures preliminary and says they are “subject to significant revision.” Even so, New York’s decline over the year was smaller than the nationwide one, which took total SNAP participation from 41,603,048 to 36,087,667, a 13.3% drop.

The slide did not start this summer. State data analyzed by City Limits showed New York enrollment down 6.2%, or more than 180,000 people, between January 2025 and February 2026, before the new work rules had taken effect. New York City’s caseload began falling in October 2025, during the federal shutdown, the city’s Department of Social Services told the outlet.

The rules: 80 hours a month, statewide since March 1

The 2025 federal law known as H.R. 1 widened who has to work, volunteer or train to keep SNAP. In New York the expanded requirements took effect statewide on March 1, 2026, and some recipients began losing benefits in June, the state Office for People With Developmental Disabilities told the people it serves.

Recipients covered by the rule must log 80 hours a month of work, job search, or education and training, or 18 hours of volunteer activity, according to that notice. Those who don’t can get SNAP for no more than three months before benefits stop. The notice said the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, which runs SNAP in New York, has been preparing county social services districts since March.

The federal law also ended automatic exemptions for people experiencing homelessness, veterans and young adults who left foster care. Before the rules took effect, OTDA estimated that more than 300,000 New York households would lose some or all of their benefits because they could not meet or document the requirements, City Limits reported.

The city: a door-to-door push to keep people enrolled

New York City, where SNAP participation peaked at 1.8 million in 2025 according to City Limits, launched its own campaign before the June cutoffs. The Mayor’s Office said on June 1 that the effort had cut by 65% the number of city residents projected to lose benefits, while about 40,000 could still lose them that month.

Without that work, the office said, New Yorkers stood to lose about $823 million in food assistance over a year. The city used phone calls, texts and door-knocking, partnered with more than 100 community organizations to create qualifying volunteer and training slots, and shared data with NYC Health + Hospitals to find people who qualified for medical exemptions.

“Food stamp work requirements don’t create jobs, they create hunger,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in the release. Department of Social Services Commissioner Erin Dalton said “government should make it easier, not harder, for people to access the benefits they are eligible to receive.”

The bill: a 13.18% error rate, just under the cutoff for a delay

The shrinking caseload comes with a growing state cost. Starting as soon as Oct. 1, 2027, states with SNAP payment error rates of 6% or more must pay a share of benefits themselves. New York’s fiscal 2025 rate was 13.18%, with 12.06% in overpayments and 1.12% in underpayments, according to USDA’s error-rate table, well above the national 10.62%.

That puts New York in the top bracket, where states pay 15% of benefit costs. The law lets states with “exceptionally high” error rates, about 13.34% or higher, delay the cost share until fiscal 2030. New York’s rate came in just below that line, so it lost the chance to delay, Ballotpedia noted in its review of the data.

States can choose either their 2025 or 2026 error rate for the first year of cost sharing, so New York’s results this year still matter. Separately, Washington’s share of SNAP’s administrative costs fell to 25% on Oct. 1, a shift that hits New York’s counties with an estimated $170 million a year because they help run the program.

The help: where New Yorkers who lost benefits can turn

Claiming an exemption is one way to keep benefits. The OPWDD notice says “most people served by OPWDD will meet at least one of these exemptions,” and urges anyone worried to work with a care manager. It points to OTDA fact sheets on keeping SNAP and on claiming exemptions, published in a dozen languages at otda.ny.gov.

County social services districts are also required to help clients keep SNAP by assisting with job searches and offering qualifying activities such as volunteer slots, according to the notice.

In New York City, residents who lost benefits or think they qualify for an exemption can call 718-SNAP-NOW (718-762-7669), use the ACCESS HRA app or visit nyc.gov/ACCESSHRA, the Mayor’s Office said.

New York’s drop is one of several large ones in the USDA table, alongside Illinois’ loss of 407,079 recipients and about 234,000 in Pennsylvania.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Magnus Bäck – CC BY 3.0/Wikimedia Commons