Illinois budget proposes $200,000 to redefine ‘low income’
The proposed state budget would pay to develop a new definition in the face of federal changes to the SNAP program.
In the wake of federal changes to the SNAP program to promote work and ensure the right people get benefits, Illinois lawmakers propose developing an alternative definition of “low-income” to count more students.
The state budget proposal would provide $200,000 to develop “an alternative low-income population count for Evidence-Based Funding calculations in response to” the federal One Big Beautiful Bill. The Illinois State Board of Education requested the initiative.
The One Big Beautiful Bill made important changes to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) meant to encourage work and ensure the food benefits go to people who need them.
In April 2026, 1.65 million people were receiving SNAP benefits in Illinois, down from 1.94 million a year earlier. The decrease can be attributed largely to fewer overpayments and more people either working or losing benefits because of a decision not to work.
States are now required to have a SNAP error rate below 6% or they will have to pay a portion of the costs of the program that increases at certain error rates. The error rate measures overpayments and underpayments of SNAP benefits.
Overpayments are generally more common than underpayments. That’s particularly true in Illinois, where the vast majority of the 11.56% error rate was due to overpayments. Illinois’ error rate was 13th-highest in the country in fiscal 2024.
If that error rate remains the same, Illinois would be required to contribute an additional $700 million to maintain recipients’ benefits at current levels.
Approximately 176,000 recipients in Illinois got more last month than they were supposed to based on their income. Those overpayments hurt others the SNAP program can help and the taxpayers who fund the benefits.
The other major change to SNAP was expanding work requirements to include all able-bodied adults 18 to 64 without dependents unless they qualify for an exemption. Those SNAP recipients now must work or volunteer an average of 20 hours per week.
Work requirements help ensure that low-income people are climbing the economic ladder with employment. Work is the best pathway out of poverty: While the poverty rate in Illinois was 11.6% in 2024, it was only 1.9% for people who worked full-time.
Rather than creating ways to count more students as low-income, the state should reduce its SNAP error rate to ensure needy people receive the appropriate benefits. The state also should celebrate more people climbing onto and up the economic ladder and enhance incentives for them to do so.