Is your county exempt from the SNAP work requirement?
USDA approves time-limit waivers for counties with sustained high unemployment. If your county is waived, the 3-months-in-36 ABAWD rule doesn't apply to you — even if you can't reach 80 work hours per month. OBBBA tightened the waiver standard in October 2025; roughly 25% of previously waived counties lost their waivers for FY2026.
Find your county's status
Waiver lists change each fiscal year and sometimes mid-year. We route you to the canonical sources for your state so you're seeing the latest USDA-approved data, not a stale snapshot.
The basics
Federal law (7 USC § 2015(o)(4)) lets USDA waive the ABAWD time limit for "an area in which the unemployment rate is over 10 percent or that does not have a sufficient number of jobs to provide employment for the individuals." States request waivers each year; USDA approves them based on Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment data plus other labor-market indicators.
What "sustained high unemployment" means under OBBBA
Before October 2025, USDA used a "10% above national average" or a "20% above national average for 24 months" threshold. OBBBA tightened both standards. The current FY2026 thresholds:
- Recent 12-month rate above 10%: Counties with sustained unemployment over 10% qualify automatically.
- Recent 24-month rate at least 20% above the national average: Counties below 10% can still qualify if their unemployment is sustained at this elevation.
OBBBA removed two paths that had qualified additional counties: the "Labor Surplus Area" designation under DOL data, and the "qualified for trade-adjustment-assistance" category. About 25% of FY2025-waived counties did not qualify under the narrower FY2026 standard.
Statewide vs partial waivers
A handful of states have unemployment patterns spread broadly enough to qualify the entire state for a waiver. Most states have partial waivers — typically 10 to 40 counties in distressed regions (Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, the Rio Grande Valley, parts of the Rust Belt, certain rural counties in Western states). A few states never request waivers, even when they would qualify, often for political reasons.
Waiver effective dates
Federal fiscal year runs Oct 1 — Sep 30. Most waivers are granted for a full FY, but USDA can approve mid-year waivers for emerging unemployment situations (natural disasters, plant closures, etc.). The FY2026 waivers approved so far are effective through Sep 30, 2026.
Where the actual waiver list lives
USDA FNS approved-waivers page
USDA's Food and Nutrition Service publishes the master list of approved waivers, updated as states submit and as approvals are issued. Each state's approval letter and the underlying county-by-county breakdown are linked from the FNS waivers page.
Official source: USDA FNS — ABAWD Time Limit Waivers
Your state SNAP agency
State SNAP agencies are required to publish or otherwise make available the current waiver list to applicants and recipients. Most state SNAP pages have an ABAWD or work-requirements section listing the waived areas. The state SNAP office customer service line can also confirm whether a specific county is currently waived — bring your ZIP code or the name of the county you live in.
The state pages on this site link to each state agency's official SNAP portal.
Why we route you to the source instead of duplicating the list
Waiver lists are revised inside any given fiscal year (mid-year requests, emergency approvals, periodic reviews). A list republished on a third-party site goes stale fast — and a stale waiver list is worse than no list because someone could rely on it and lose benefits. We update our state pages with material waiver changes as they're announced, but for the live, complete county list, the USDA and state-agency sources are the canonical references.
What changed and what to do
If your county was waived in FY2025 but not in FY2026, the 3-months-in-36 ABAWD time limit now applies to you unless you have another exemption (medical, pregnancy, caregiver, student, work hours 80+/month). Practical steps:
1. Check your other exemption options first
Many people who relied on a county waiver actually have a separate exemption available. The full ABAWD article lists all 8+ exemptions and the documentation needed for each. The most common workarounds: a medical letter (any doctor can write it for any work-limiting condition) and the caretaker-of-child-under-14 exemption (if applicable).
2. Track your 3-month clock
The 3-month limit is the period during which you can receive SNAP without working 80+ hrs/month or being exempt. It resets every 36 months. Once you've used your 3 months, you must either start meeting the 80-hour rule or wait for the 36-month reset. Your state SNAP office should send a "Time-Limited Benefits" notice when your 3 months begin and again when they're about to end.
3. If you got terminated as the waiver expired
Use the 5-question lost-benefits triage to figure out whether you can still appeal, whether an exemption applies retroactively, and what alternative programs are available while you sort it out. The 90-day federal appeal window starts from the date on the termination notice.
Where this comes from
- 7 USC § 2015(o)(4) — federal statute authorizing ABAWD time-limit waivers
- USDA FNS — ABAWD waivers (approval letters, county lists, current criteria)
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) (the underlying unemployment data USDA uses)
- Public Law 119-19 (OBBBA) — Sec. 30203 modifying the waiver criteria
- Center on Budget and Policy Priorities — ongoing waiver-status tracking and impact analysis
Last reviewed: 2026-05-31. State-by-state waiver data is refreshed quarterly as USDA approval letters are issued. For the current month's status, the USDA FNS page is the canonical reference.