Decline in Food Stamps Shows Low-Income Relief: EcoPulse

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-01/decline-in-food-stamps-shows-low-income-relief-ecopulse.html




Participation in the U.S. government food-stamp program is declining modestly as low-income Americans get some economic reprieve.

About 46.25 million people were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in April, according to the most-recent data available from the Department of Agriculture. That’s down 3.2 percent from a high of almost 47.8 million in December 2012. May figures are scheduled to be released Aug. 8.

The “gradual decline” shows some low-income households no longer use these benefits as their finances slowly have improved, said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group, an institutional equity-trading broker in New York, who monitors these data each month. “A portion of this population is seeing some level of economic relief.”

Participation in this needs-based program, or SNAP, is a “distress indicator,” Colas said. The number of people receiving such assistance climbed about 27 percent during the 18-month recession that ended in June 2009 and continued to rise, so the recent reduction suggests the recovery is benefiting more Americans, he said.