Cutting Emergency SNAP Benefits Linked to Rise in Child Maltreatment

When US states ended pandemic-era boosts to food assistance, substantiated child maltreatment rose in the counties affected, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The research analyzed nationwide child welfare data from 1,153 US counties between January 2021 and February 2022, drawn from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), a federal administrative system containing case-level records of child maltreatment investigations and child welfare services reported by states.

The benefits in question were SNAP Emergency Allotments, authorized by the US Department of Agriculture beginning in early 2020 to help households weather the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participating households received expanded nutrition assistance, but states discontinued the payments at different points between 2021 and 2023. That staggered timing created a natural comparison: ten states—Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Tennessee—ended the emergency allotments at different times during the study window, while other states continued providing them.

Lead investigator Liwei Zhang, PhD, of the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia, reported that ending the expanded benefits was associated with increases in substantiated child maltreatment overall, as well as neglect and physical abuse specifically. The increases appeared gradually over time after benefits ended, suggesting the effects of losing additional food assistance may not show up immediately but may build as families face ongoing financial pressure.

An important detail strengthens the interpretation: the number of maltreatment reports did not significantly increase, only the number of substantiated cases. That pattern suggests the rise was not simply an artifact of more cases being reported or investigated, but reflected a genuine increase in maltreatment confirmed by child welfare agencies.

The study’s design exploits the policy variation across states. Because some states ended the emergency allotments early while others maintained them, researchers could compare changes in maltreatment rates between the two groups over the same period. The analysis window closed in February 2022, before a second wave of states—Iowa, Kentucky, Arizona, Wyoming, Georgia, Indiana, and Alaska—ended the allotments between March and August 2022, which the authors note as a scope limitation of the observed period.

The findings fit a well-established body of evidence linking economic hardship, including food insecurity, to child maltreatment—particularly neglect—by increasing psychological distress and disrupting parents’ capacity to support their children.

Previous research has shown that expanded SNAP benefits during the pandemic helped reduce food hardship and improve families’ well-being. This study extends that literature by focusing on policy de-implementation—the effects of withdrawing benefits—a topic that has received far less attention than studies of policy implementation. The results suggest that changes to food assistance programs have consequences extending beyond food security to child and family well-being more broadly.

The timing gives the findings practical weight. Millions of people have lost SNAP assistance over the past year, and additional eligibility restrictions and other policy changes are expected to reduce participation further as they take effect. The authors argue that policymakers should continue to consider the role and level of nutrition assistance available to vulnerable families when weighing such changes.

Zhang and colleagues frame the work as a contribution to prevention science beyond the child welfare system.

The research was a data and statistical analysis of administrative records, published by Elsevier with the article title “Association Between the Expiration of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Emergency Allotments and Child Maltreatment.” As an observational, county-level analysis, it establishes an association tied to policy timing rather than a randomized demonstration of causation, but the convergence of gradual onset, unchanged report counts, and alignment with prior food-hardship research makes the signal difficult to dismiss.

Subject of Research: Association between the expiration of SNAP Emergency Allotments and child maltreatment rates in US counties

Article Title: End of COVID-era snap emergency food assistance linked to increased child maltreatment rates

Article References: End of COVID-era snap emergency food assistance linked to increased child maltreatment rates. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

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Keywords: SNAP, Emergency Allotments, child maltreatment, neglect, food insecurity, child welfare, NCANDS, policy de-implementation, COVID-19, public health, nutrition assistance, American Journal of Preventive Medicine