By Alex Klee, Thomas Murphy, and Andrew Carr, DataHaven

Note: The SNAP enrollment numbers used in this report are based on data that was provided to DataHaven by Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS). The age-group enrollment numbers are from a DSS data extract from August 12, 2026, and town-level enrollment numbers are based on a data extract from July 21, 2026.

Introduction

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that H.R.1, the Trump administration’s landmark bill that was passed in 2025, will cut almost $187 billion in federal funding from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps. One of the main sources of these projected cuts is the expansion of work requirements. Under Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) requirements, adults must provide evidence of having worked, volunteered, or attended training programs for at least 80 hours in the last month to remain eligible for SNAP. H.R.1 expanded the ABAWD requirements to include parents with children ages 14 to 17 and adults ages 55 to 64. The bill also eliminated exemptions for veterans, young adults emerging from the foster care system, and homeless people.¹ Lastly, the bill denies SNAP eligibility outright to certain immigrant groups.² These changes reduce the number of eligible adults and create administrative hurdles for those who remain eligible.³ The changes went into effect in November 2025, shortly after the bill was passed in July, and have already had a significant impact on SNAP enrollment.

This report builds on a previous DataHaven report that examined the projected effects of H.R.1 on SNAP benefits and food insecurity in Connecticut. That report projected that 58,000 families would lose at least $25 in SNAP benefits as a result of H.R.1, amounting to between $11 and $15 million in losses.

In this report, we show that the increased work requirements from H.R.1 contributed to a 15 percent reduction in SNAP enrollment (55,000 people) between June 2025 and June 2026.⁴ Our finding aligns with numbers recently reported by Connecticut Voices for Children, who calculated that enrollment fell by about 63,000 from July 2025 to July 2026. The drop in enrollment represents a growing number of families who are struggling to put food on the table. It reflects a disinvestment of federal funds from local Connecticut economies.

In this report, we also measure the enrollment gap for SNAP benefits using an adapted Program Access Index (PAI). This measure estimates the share of SNAP enrollees among those who meet the program’s federal income and age eligibility criteria. Our analysis shows that the SNAP enrollment gap has grown substantially.

Finally, we use data on the average SNAP benefit amount to estimate the impact of disenrollment on local economies in Connecticut. 

How SNAP enrollment has changed

According to data that DataHaven requested from Connecticut’s Department of Social Services (DSS), SNAP enrollment has fallen sharply, declining 15 percent from 363,000 in June 2025 to 308,000 in June 2026.⁵ Enrollment had been decreasing before this, a trend that could be due to the November 2023 discontinuation of a statewide exemption from ABAWD requirements, but the fall has accelerated since then.⁶ The bar chart below breaks this down into four age groups: children under 18, adults 18 to 54, adults 55 to 64, and adults 65 and over. 

The recent decline in SNAP varies significantly by age group. Adults ages 65 and up, the only group for whom H.R.1 did not affect SNAP eligibility, actually saw their enrollment increase by 1 percent (521 people). Conversely, adults ages 18 to 54 saw their enrollment decline by 23 percent (31,361 people), and adults ages 55 to 64 saw their enrollment decrease by 16 percent (6,767 people). Many adults in these groups became subject to the ABAWD requirements under H.R.1. 

The enrollment trend for children, who saw their enrollment decrease by 15 percent, points to the impact that H.R.1 has had on families’ ability to remain enrolled in SNAP. The bill impacted families by expanding work requirements for adults with dependents ages 14 to 17 and increasing the amount of red tape that families must go through to prove eligibility. This increased administrative burden prevents eligible people from retaining their SNAP benefits, impacting the enrollment levels of children who receive these benefits through their caregivers. 

The Adapted Program Access Index (PAI) and SNAP coverage

To understand how the level of participation among those who are eligible for SNAP has changed, we estimated an Adapted Program Access Index (PAI). This measure is based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Program Access Index. The traditional PAI is the ratio of SNAP recipients to the number of people who meet the program’s federal income eligibility criteria, while our Adapted PAI also considers the program’s age eligibility criteria.⁷

Adapted PAI is not a true participation rate – it does not account for the effects of work requirements or Connecticut’s higher income limits on eligibility – but this measure is useful for understanding the reach of SNAP’s coverage among those who are likely to be eligible and in need of food assistance.⁸

Connecticut saw its Adapted PAI fall by about 11 percentage points from 70 percent to 59 percent between June 2025 and June 2026. The plot above shows that SNAP coverage fell across the state. Many cities, which tend to have higher shares of low-income residents and greater SNAP need, experienced above-average declines in SNAP coverage.⁹ 

This map shows the decrease in Adapted PAI by town. While Connecticut experienced an 11 percentage point drop in SNAP coverage, Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Waterbury had drops in coverage between 13 and 18 percentage points.¹⁰ Stamford was the only large city to experience a smaller drop at 7 percentage points. The larger dropoff in enrollment in large cities could be driven in part by the November 2025 cancellation of ABAWD exemptions.¹¹ These exemptions allowed anyone in these cities who met the income and age eligibility requirements to receive SNAP. Most Connecticut towns (60 percent) did not have this exemption. 

The concentration of SNAP losses in high-need areas suggests that many of the people who lost SNAP remain eligible for the benefit. This bill created administrative obstacles to retaining enrollment among the eligible, particularly through expanded work requirements.

The 2025 DataHaven Community Wellbeing Survey (DCWS) indicates that a large share of Connecticut residents lost SNAP benefits due to administrative burden. Respondents who lost SNAP over the past five years were asked to give one or more reasons for losing the benefit. Of those who had received SNAP within the past five years but were no longer enrolled as of 2025, 11 percent had lost benefits because the application or recertification process was too difficult and another 11 percent had lost benefits because they could or chose not to collect them.

The challenges that cause people who are eligible for SNAP to lose coverage include the costs of learning about eligibility criteria, submitting work documentation (paystubs, bank statements, mortgage payments and other bills) and application forms, scheduling and attending interviews,  and managing the psychological stress of interacting with caseworkers (The Hamilton Project, p.20-21). These costs have also increased as a result of shortened time periods for submitting applications for SNAP renewal and the additional paperwork this requires. Beyond the DCWS, empirical studies have shown that SNAP work requirements imposed in the past have caused substantial loss in SNAP coverage due to administrative burden (Cook, Cox, and East).¹²

Dollars Leaving Communities

Waning SNAP enrollment has a profound effect on local economies. SNAP recipients buy groceries in local stores and have more money to spend at other local businesses. Reductions in SNAP benefits cause people to cut back on purchases and reduce demand throughout the local economy.¹³

DataHaven calculated the local economic impact of declining SNAP enrollment by multiplying the number of people who have lost SNAP benefits by the Connecticut average benefit amount per person in April 2026. This average – which is an exact calculation and not an estimate – is the total SNAP amount Connecticut received in April 2026 ($59 million) divided by the number of SNAP recipients from that month (313,000).¹⁴

Total SNAP losses from the past year have been concentrated in four of Connecticut’s five largest cities. These places account for almost 40 percent of the money that Connecticut lost as a result of declining enrollment. While Connecticut lost about $11.2 million in benefits each month between June 2025 and June 2026, these four cities lost roughly $4.4 million per month during this time.

The map above shows the loss in SNAP benefits per 10,000 residents in each Connecticut town. This provides further evidence that SNAP losses disproportionately impacted city economies. Cities lost more money from benefit reductions, even after accounting for population differences. The five towns with the largest losses per capita – Hartford, Waterbury, New Britain, New Haven, and Bridgeport – are among the most populous towns in the state.

The ten towns with the largest total dollar amounts per capita leaving their communities – Hartford, Waterbury, New Britain, New Haven, Bridgeport, Windham, Meriden, East Hartford, New London, and Norwich – are all classified by the state as economically distressed.¹⁵ This designation identifies the communities facing the most fiscal and economic hardship in Connecticut. This indicates that the economic impact of declining SNAP enrollment is greatest in towns that are the most economically vulnerable. 

Discussion and Conclusion

Our report reinforces previous research showing that H.R.1 has dramatically reduced SNAP enrollment, both in Connecticut and across the United States.¹⁶ We found that SNAP enrollment fell by 15 percent (55,000 recipients) between June 2025 and June 2026. Most of this decline occurred among people under 65, the group whose eligibility requirements were affected by H.R.1’s SNAP provisions.

We also used an Adapted PAI measure to analyze how much SNAP coverage fell among those most in need of food assistance. The magnitude of the reduction in SNAP coverage and the concentration of coverage loss in high-need areas suggest that the administrative burden caused by H.R.1 is a key driver of SNAP enrollment losses.

Finally, we used data on the average SNAP benefit amount to estimate the effect of declining enrollment on local economies. Large cities in Connecticut have lost the most money as a result of declining enrollment. 

The findings from this report align with the benefit losses that DataHaven forecasted in a SNAP report from last year. That report predicted that Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, and Waterbury would each lose benefits ranging from $1.05M to $1.4M per month. We estimate in this report that these cities lost between $1M and $1.3M monthly between June 2025 and June 2026. Our results also align with the Urban Institute’s forecast that Connecticut would lose between $11 million and $15 million per month in SNAP benefits. We estimate that the state is losing about $11 million in benefits per month.

Our report also shows that some earlier projections underestimated the number of Connecticut residents who would lose SNAP. The DSS predicted last October that 36,000 would lose coverage, but our data indicates that 55,000 lost coverage between June 2025 and June 2026. A recent analysis from Connecticut Voices for Children shows that the number of people who lost SNAP between July 2025 and July 2026 was even higher, about 63,000, further demonstrating that earlier forecasts were underestimates. 

Connecticut’s monthly SNAP losses could increase in the coming months, especially as additional H.R.1 provisions take effect. These include a requirement for states with high payment error rates to absorb a share of SNAP benefit costs.¹⁷

Some states have responded by increasing the paperwork required to remain enrolled in benefits. For example, these changes contributed to a massive drop in SNAP coverage in Arizona, where the level of enrollment fell 55 percent between July 2025 and April 2026.

Connecticut’s SNAP error rate was 9.08 percent in 2025. If its 2026 rate is not lower, the state will have to cover 10 percent of SNAP benefits costs starting in 2028. H.R.1 also includes a provision that shifts the split in federal and state funding for the administrative costs of SNAP from 50-50 to 25-75. This will take effect in October 2026. 

We hope that nonprofits and policymakers can use this report to understand how H.R.1 has impacted SNAP enrollment where they live and to advocate for policies that reverse the downward slide in SNAP coverage. Connecticut has already introduced stopgap measures to ease the pain of diminished benefits, including a $300 grocery store gift card for those who lost SNAP due to the expanded work requirements. The $8.5M in funding needed for this program came out of a $500M fund that the state government has allocated for food and nutrition assistance, health care, child care, and home heating assistance programs that were impacted by federal funding reductions. The gift card measure is a good start, but state legislators should use the fund to finance programs that offer lasting support to those who have lost SNAP benefits. 

Legislators should also prepare for Connecticut’s increasing share of SNAP administrative and benefits costs. Starting in October 2026, the H.R.1 provision that shifts the administrative costs of SNAP will cost the state an additional $46M per year. Connecticut’s error rate penalty, which begins in 2028, may cost the state another $85M per year. The $500M fund created last year was not designed to address these recurring costs. Policymakers should anticipate these costs early and allocate funding to offset the imminent decline in federal support.

Methodology

Our analysis of monthly SNAP enrollment by age group is based on enrollment data from June 2025 to June 2026 that we obtained from the Connecticut DSS on August 12, 2026. To calculate the Adapted Program Access Index, we used a town-level dataset obtained from the DSS on July 21st for the number of SNAP enrollees in June 2026. This was divided by the number of people who meet the program’s federal income and age eligibility criteria. Data from the 2020-2024 American Community Survey was used to calculate this.

To estimate the local economic impact of SNAP losses, we divided the total benefit amount in April 2026 by the number of people enrolled in SNAP in the same month to get the average benefit for Connecticut. The benefit amount data comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. We then multiplied this by the number of people who lost SNAP per month in each Connecticut town to get the total monthly loss for each town.

Endnotes

1. The bill also eliminated ABAWD exemptions for adults in dozens of Connecticut towns. The elimination of these exemptions went into effect in November 2025.
2. These groups include refugees, asylees, trafficking victims, and battered immigrants (see https://portal.ct.gov/dss/knowledge-base/articles/snap/abawd-work-requirement-changes-hr1?language=en_US, under “Alien SNAP eligibility”).
3. H.R.1 reduces exemptions from the Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependent work requirements, which are additional to the general work requirements for SNAP. See SNAP Provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 for more information about the expanded requirements.
4. In this report, SNAP enrollment is defined as the number of individuals who receive SNAP.
5. Connecticut Department of Social Services (DSS) publishes annual counts of SNAP recipients through a public dashboard on their website.
6. The decline in SNAP enrollment began in the latter half of 2024.
7. The traditional program access index (PAI) measures the ratio of average monthly SNAP participants to the number of people making below 125% of the federal poverty level (FPL). Adapted PAI, on the other hand, uses a denominator that considers both the program’s federal income and age criteria: people under 65 making below 125% of the FPL and people 65 and over making below 200% of the FPL. To calculate the adapted PAI, we used data from CT DSS for June 2026 to get the number of SNAP participants and the 2020-2024 American Community Survey to estimate the number of people who meet SNAP’s federal income and age eligibility criteria.
8. Neither traditional nor adapted PAI accounts for unemployed and partially-employed people whose eligibility depends on the work requirements. Additionally, neither PAI measure captures those who fail to meet federal eligibility criteria but meet their state’s eligibility criteria. Many states have higher income limits for eligibility. Connecticut, for instance, has a higher income limit for SNAP eligibility (200% of FPL).
9. Fourteen percent of Connecticut is low-income, with family income less than 125 percent FPL if under 65 or less than 200 percent FPL if 65 and older. The low-income population makes up 14 percent of Hartford region, 16 percent of New Haven region, 16 percent of Waterbury region, and 17 percent of Bridgeport region.
10. These cities also saw larger drops in percentage terms. While Connecticut’s adapted PAI fell 16 percent, adapted PAI in Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Waterbury fell between 16 and 19 percent.
11. Sixty-eight Connecticut towns, including Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Waterbury, had a blanket ABAWD exemption. Stamford, on the other hand, did not have such an exemption.
12. Cook, Cox, and East showed that SNAP work requirements cause an increase in procedural denials, or denials for SNAP that occur because “not all information or supporting documentation was provided [by the applicant], or the required interview with the caseworker was missed.” (p.1) Procedural denials in their study are treated as a proxy for administrative burden.
13. SNAP benefits are also linked to certain discounts, such as CT Fresh Match, which doubles EBT cardholders’ purchasing power at farmers markets, and discounts for museum admissions.
14. The number of April 2026 SNAP recipients comes from CT DSS, while the total SNAP amount CT received is based on an estimate from USDA Food and Nutrition Service.
15. Almost all of these towns were economically distressed in 2025 according to Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (https://portal.ct.gov/DECD/Content/About_DECD/Research-and-Publications/02_Review_Publications/Distressed-Municipalities). The only exception, New Haven, was listed as Formerly Distressed with Eligibility Remaining. This means that while New Haven no longer meets with eligibility criteria, the municipality retains its designation as a distressed municipality until 2031. The designation serves to direct funding from financial assistance programs (https://www.cga.ct.gov/2023/rpt/pdf/2023-R-0017.pdf).
16. A late July article from CTMirror reports that 18,900 children have lost SNAP enrollment since July 2025 (https://ctmirror.org/2026/07/30/nearly-18900-ct-children-have-lost-snap-benefits-over-past-year/). This number is based on data from CT DSS and comes close to our estimate of 17,900. The difference in our estimates may be due to the different periods, as our analysis covers the period from June 2025 to June 2026.
17. The payment error rate is different from a fraud rate. The rate measures the share of all SNAP benefits that are either overpayments or underpayments. States with error rates that exceed certain thresholds will be required to pay a share of SNAP benefits, and that share increases at each threshold.