Expanding SNAP benefits

Last month, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services announced it was expanding eligibility for SNAP benefits, the program formerly known as “food stamps.” This expansion is designed to gradually phase-out benefits, instead of creating a sharp cutoff where a small increase in income means a large decrease in benefits.

ODJFS Director Matt Damschroder said "Fear of losing food benefits can be a deterrent to taking a new job, working more hours, or even accepting a promotion. Instead of an all-or-nothing approach, we are creating a sliding scale that encourages people to earn more by slowly reducing their benefits as their income grows. This provides an incentive to accept promotions and pay raises knowing they won’t immediately lose benefits."

There is consensus among economists that reducing the impact of the “benefits cliff” has many positive impacts, but it still requires additional spending. We are interested in estimating how much this SNAP expansion will cost Ohio.

Your goal is to come up with a quantitative estimate for how much more Ohio will spend on SNAP benefits as a result of this change. Your reasoning and conclusion should be written up in a memo of less than 300 words and emailed to Michael Hartnett at michael@sciotoanalysis.com by 5:00pm on Monday, November 25th.

There is no definitive “right” answer to this question, though there are better and worse answers. Our goal, however, is to see your strategy for answering a question and your ability to gather information, analyze it critically, and present it concisely. We look forward to reviewing your work.