After weeks of delays, about 700,000 Tennesseans are starting to get their full Supplemental Nutrition Assistance benefits.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services will be paying out all backlogged food aid. The agency said Monday morning that card re-loads were already underway.
November SNAP benefits had been delayed by weeks as the government shutdown dragged on. Some families were hit harder than others. Tennessee distributes benefits between the first and the 20th of the month; assigned dates are based on the last two digits of the applicant’s social security number. So some have had their aid frozen for more than two weeks, while others never missed a payment.
Payment rollout details
After some legal battles, the Trump Administration agreed to pay out partial benefits. That was as little as $12 for some Tennessee families. The households that got those partial benefits will have the rest of their normal benefit amount added to their EBT card beginning Monday, according to TDHS.
Households that have missed payments in November and didn’t get partial benefits should also start seeing benefits in the next few days.
Households whose normal benefit dates are the 18th, 19th or 20th will get their aid on the normal date.
Quick SNAP facts
About one in 10 Tennesseans get some amount of food aid from SNAP. On average, the benefits come out to roughly $6 per person per day.
Nearly 90% of people who get this aid live below the poverty line. That’s earnings of about $15,000 a year for a single person or about $30,000 for a family of four.
More than 300,000 of the people using SNAP in the state are children under 18. About 100,000 are adults under 65 with disabilities, and another 90,000 are adults over 65.
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