The Missouri Department of Social Services announced Thursday that it will continue to issue partial payments of federal food benefits for November, while updating its systems to resume paying full amounts.
The announcement comes after President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed legislation funding the federal government through the end of January and ending the shutdown he cited as the cause of delayed payments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
“With federal funding back in place, our team is moving swiftly to issue full November benefits,” said Jess Bax, director of the department, in a press release.
Baylee Watts, the department’s media director, said in an email that the department is working with its electronic benefits vendor to distribute full November benefits.
“As soon as we have confirmed the timing and what that will look like for different participants, we’ll be able to share more,” Watts said.
States across the country scrambled to comply with rapid-fire changes to federal guidance on whether and how to issue SNAP payments while Congress remained gridlocked on expiring healthcare tax credits.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened on Saturday to impose financial penalties on states that had paid out full monthly benefits in keeping with a judge’s order on Nov. 6 that USDA fund the program. USDA had already changed its instructions on the amount of benefits states could include in partial payments.
Missouri began distributing partial benefits on Tuesday, with enrollees in the program receiving up to 65% of their normal monthly funds.
The intricacies of USDA directives on partial payments forced state agencies to make complex calculations under pressure, said Christine Woody, food security policy coordinator at Empower Missouri, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income residents.
“The (state) department did not cause this,” Woody said, “and they were working with what they had.”
Recipients qualifying for the maximum allowed for their household, according to USDA instructions, received 65% of their regular benefits. Households eligible for less than the maximum saw their payments reduced by a further 30% of their income. Initial guidance told states to reduce maximum allotments by 50%.
USDA “strongly encouraged” states in a policy memo Thursday to “begin the process of upgrading systems and updating state procedures” to make partial payments more quickly in the future. The memo noted that, even after Wednesday’s appropriations bill, there aren’t enough contingency funds to make full SNAP payments in November 2026 “in the event of a lapse of appropriations next year.”
Woody said Empower Missouri will advocate for more federal support in case SNAP runs out of funding in a future shutdown.
“I believe that there are things that the federal government could do,” Woody said, “to ensure that there’s more money in those contingency funds.”
Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
