PHOENIX — SNAP enrollment has fallen dramatically in Arizona in just three months, according to the latest state numbers.
About 533,000 people received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits in January, a 31% decline from October, according to the Department of Economic Security.
The drop is even more pronounced compared to one year earlier, when nearly 1 million Arizonans received assistance in January 2025.
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“The caseload decline is driven in large part by the requirements in H.R.1, passed in July 2025, that changed SNAP eligibility and imposed new quality review requirements on states,” Brett Bezio, a DES spokesperson, told ABC15 in a statement.
Children make up more than 40% of the state’s SNAP recipients, and the number of kids receiving benefits in January fell by one-third compared to October.
The declines were even more dramatic in Maricopa County: 35.2% of children and 35.9% of people overall.
President Donald Trump’s tax law known as the One Big Beautiful Act included a number of changes to SNAP, including expanded work requirements, reduced eligibility for non-citizens and more frequent state eligibility verifications.
Able-bodied adults without children can only receive three months of benefits within a three-year period if they do not meet SNAP’s work requirements.
The tax law also removed exemptions to work requirements. The Arizona Center for Economic Progress estimated the changes could affect 147,000 Arizonans.
ABC15 has asked DES for more specifics about why enrollment in SNAP has dropped.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers say the agency removed people who were not qualified for benefits.
House Majority Leader Michael Carbone cheered the decline in SNAP enrollment two weeks ago, calling the program unsustainable. He told reporters on Feb. 17 that the program’s costs have doubled within the last few years from $1 billion to $2 billion.
“We're struggling to find revenues when we have all this economic development in our state, where we are creating the jobs, we are doing what we need to do, but our money is being transferred somewhere,” he said.
Carbone and other Republican lawmakers had called on Gov. Katie Hobbs to sign a package of bills aimed at reforming SNAP, Medicaid and unemployment.
She vetoed them a few days later, calling H.R. 1 “a partisan budget that stripped food assistance and healthcare from hundreds of thousands of Arizonans.” In her veto letter, Hobbs said DES is working to enhance eligibility verifications and accuracy.
Bezio said the agency’s priority is ensuring the program remains accessible.
“We are implementing these federal requirements while minimizing disruption for the families that need this critical lifeline,” he said.
