The current state of knowledge on SNAP restrictions and disincentives
Resource summary
This page includes a brief summary of Healthy Eating Research's (HER) issue brief on SNAP restrictions and disincentive policies, also known as "SNAP waivers." To view the full issue brief, click the “View Resource” button above or below.
Little is known about the impacts of SNAP restrictions on the health of program participants. This brief provides a narrative review of published evidence on SNAP restrictions and combined incentive-disincentive approaches, highlighting the approaches’ historical context, perceptions among program participants, and evidence of impact on SNAP participants’ purchases and health. Additional studies are needed to rigorously evaluate the implementation process and intervention effects of SNAP restrictions and approaches pairing incentives with restrictions.
Introduction
Poor diet quality is a leading contributor to negative health outcomes across the U.S. People across all income levels struggle to eat a healthy diet, however, those with lower incomes face systemic, political, and structural barriers that limit financial resources and household food choices. Therefore, systems-level changes that have the greatest potential to improve the nutrition and health of all people in the U.S., particularly households with low incomes, are needed.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which, in fiscal year 2024 served more than 41 million people in the U.S. In 2023, 79% of households receiving SNAP benefits included a child, elderly individual, or nonelderly individual with a disability. The goal of SNAP is to provide financial benefits to households with low incomes to supplement their grocery budgets, allowing them to afford nutritious foods. There is a wide body of research demonstrating the many benefits of SNAP.
The program: 1) reduces poverty, 2) generates economic activity, 3) reduces food insecurity, 4) reduces health care expenditures, and 5) improves health outcomes.
Some research suggests that adult SNAP participants have lower diet quality than income-eligible nonparticipants and higher-income nonparticipants. Possible approaches to improve diet quality among SNAP participants have been considered in recent years, including:
- increasing SNAP benefit amounts, which would provide households with more purchasing power to afford healthier foods;
- expanding and investing in SNAP-Ed, which provides nutrition education for SNAP participants and supports policy, systems, and environmental interventions in communities;
- implementing healthy incentive programs, which offer SNAP households more money to purchase healthy foods like fruits and vegetables;
- restricting unhealthy foods and beverages from being purchased with SNAP benefits; and
- combining disincentives with fruit and vegetable incentive approaches, which discourage or prevent unhealthy foods and beverages from being purchased while encouraging healthy purchases.
Despite numerous recommendations for strategies to improve nutrition in SNAP, questions remain as to which of the recommended strategies would be most effective at improving diet quality. One notable exception is healthy incentive programs, which have gained traction due to a growing body of evidence supporting their effectiveness, and thus have received federal and state government funding.
The first Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot was authorized in 2002 as the Healthy Incentives Pilot (HIP). This pilot formed the foundation of multiple iterations of incentive programs that have continued to be reauthorized, including through the most recent 2018 Farm Bill as the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP). Large-scale evaluations of the program repeatedly show that participation is associated with higher fruit and vegetable intake and improved food security.12-15 While healthy food incentive programs have been well-studied, far less is known about disincentives or purchasing restrictions.
This brief provides a narrative review of published evidence on SNAP restrictions and combined incentive-disincentive approaches (a means to discourage purchases while maintaining choice), highlighting the historical context, perceptions of program participants, and the evidence of impact on purchases and health.
Click “View Resource” to learn more.