SNAP Work Requirements, Administrative Burden, and Procedural Denials

Administrative burdens in public assistance create barriers to program access. Some argue that work requirements impose new paperwork and compliance costs, but this has been difficult to test empirically. One signifier of administrative burdens is procedural denials—denials due to things like missing paperwork rather than ineligibility. We examine the impact of removing work requirements for Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on denials. We leverage variation in ABAWD work requirements across time and space, using administrative data from a mountain-plains state. Our findings indicate that eliminating work requirements reduces procedural denials.