Food Stamp households taking hit

Most of the nearly 388,000 households in Louisiana that receive food stamps will be hit with a drop in their aid beginning today, when a temporary boost in the federal benefits disappears.
The reduction depends on household size and whether the family currently receives the maximum food stamp amount allowed under the law for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called SNAP.
The cut ranges from $11 each month for a one-person household getting the maximum aid to $43 for a household with five people, about a 5 percent reduction, according to the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services.
Louisiana saw continued growth in the number of households receiving food stamps in the last five years, with a high of more than 404,000 households — nearly 908,000 individual recipients — in the SNAP program in the last fiscal year. The number has dropped slightly this year so far.
Nearly $1.5 billion in food stamp aid was paid to Louisiana families last year.
The total cut to food stamp payments in Louisiana is projected to be $98 million for the federal fiscal year, running through September 2014, the Louisiana Budget Project reports.
The federal stimulus bill passed by Congress in 2009 temporarily increased the maximum amount of food stamp aid that people could receive. The increase falls away at the start of November for food stamp programs in all states.
DCFS spokesman Trey Williams said the aid cut would affect most of the state’s households in the program. More than 866,000 people live in the Louisiana households that receive food stamps. The average monthly payment to households in Louisiana’s program has been about $307 this year.