Understanding Demographic Variation in the Implementation of ABAWD Waivers

By statute, SNAP State agencies may request waivers of the time limit for Able-Bodied Adults without Dependents (ABAWDs) for areas that meet specific economic criteria. States have discretion when applying to FNS for waivers of the time limit by including specific geographic areas that must be justified based on the appropriate criteria. Because race, ethnicity, and other demographic characteristics vary by place (e.g. counties, zip codes), there may be disparities between groups living within different geographic areas, including tribal areas, that are included in waiver requests.

To better understand the kinds of disparities that may result when States choose to not request Statewide requests or choose specific geographic areas to include in a waiver request, this project developed a county-level database containing ABAWD waiver requests from October 2015 through December 2019 and corresponding demographic data from the Census Bureau, and labor force and unemployment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.