Report: Nearly half of Arizona’s food aid recipients dropped from program in last year

PHOENIX — Hundreds of thousands of Arizonans have lost access to government food assistance in the months since a sweeping federal spending law took effect last summer. Arizona saw the sharpest decline in the country, according to a new analysis released Wednesday.

About 424,000 fewer people in Arizona were receiving benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a 47% drop in the seven months since the law took effect in July 2025, according to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

SNAP is the federal grocery aid program formerly known as food stamps.

State data from January 2026 shows just 533,000 Arizonans still receiving food aid, a 42% drop from a year earlier.

The number of enrolled households fell 38%.

The total monthly benefits paid also plunged by a similar share, falling by more than $70 million to about $95.8 million.

The losses cannot be explained by an improving economy, the analysis found. Arizona’s unemployment rate actually rose over the same period of time, and grocery prices climbed 4% in 2025.

The report points to overlapping forces driving the decline

The problem is compounded by severe understaffing at the state agency handling applications.

Federal administrative funding cuts have left Arizona without the money to hire replacements, leading to long delays, unanswered calls and a backlog of unprocessed cases, reported ABC15. In January, only about 86% of applications were processed on time.

The law tightened eligibility by expanding work requirements, limiting states’ ability to waive them and cutting off some legal immigrants.

It also created a new financial penalty: Starting in late 2027, most states must pay a share of benefit costs tied to their error rates, giving them a powerful incentive to aggressively tighten paperwork and verification checks now.

Responding to the report, Governor Katie Hobbs’ office said Republicans are taking food out of the mouths of Arizonans.

“If these actions weren’t taken, Arizona would put hundreds of millions of dollars in food assistance at risk, forcing even more families to lose access to their benefits,” said a representative for Governor Katie Hobbs’ office.

The national trend shows a similar decrease, though not as extreme

The cuts are not limited to Arizona.

Nationally, about 2.5 million fewer people were receiving food aid between the law’s July enactment and December, a 6% drop.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the law will cut nearly $187 billion from the food assistance program over the next decade and that more than 2.4 million people in a typical month will be removed from the rolls once all changes are in place.

A 10-year view of state caseload data shows SNAP households in Arizona peaked at roughly 433,500 and have since fallen to about 286,600, their lowest level in a decade.

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