Minnesota’s SNAP work rules now reach about 18,000 more adults in an average month, because the federal 2025 reconciliation law raised the upper age from 54 to 64 on November 1, 2025. The state also says the areas excused from the rules fell from 17 counties and nine Tribal Nations to three Tribal Nations.
The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families lays out the numbers on its impact page for the federal law. The newly covered adults make up about 4 percent of the people who get SNAP in the state.
Two-thirds of the newly covered adults are 55 to 64
The same page says about two-thirds of the added group is between 55 and 64, and a quarter are adults with children who are 14 or older. Before the change, the time-limited rules stopped at 54, and a household with any child under 18 was excused.
The state’s time-limited work rules page now describes the group as people 18 to 64 who do not live with a dependent under 14 and have no physical or mental health condition that stops them from working. Parents of teenagers are therefore inside the rules for the first time.
The requirement is 20 hours a week, or 80 hours a month, of work, job training, a work program or volunteering, and recipients must report that they are meeting it. After any three months without meeting it, benefits stop for the rest of the three-year period unless the person starts meeting the rule or becomes exempt.
That makes the question concrete for a lot of households: an adult on SNAP between 18 and 64, living without a child under 14, who is not pregnant, not drawing unemployment and not working 30 hours a week or earning $217.50 or more weekly, is the person the clock is counting. Anyone in that spot can ask the county or Tribal Nation eligibility worker what is on file for the household.
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Where waivers still apply
Before the law, Minnesota had waivers covering 17 counties and nine Tribal Nations, which meant adults living there were not held to the three-month limit. The federal change allows waivers only where unemployment is above 10 percent, and the state’s page says only three Tribal Nations qualify under the new law. It does not name them.
A separate federal document gives a more detailed list. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service approved a fiscal 2026 waiver in a letter dated November 20, 2025. It covers Clearwater County and the Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Mille Lacs and Red Lake reservations.
The approval ran from December 1, 2025 through November 30, 2026. The letter cites unemployment of 10.3 percent for Clearwater County and 10.7 percent or higher for the reservations. Because that waiver ends in six weeks, the list of excused places can change again, and households in those areas should ask their worker which rule applies after November.
Exemptions that stop the clock
The state’s rules page lists the people who do not have to meet the work requirement. They include people who are pregnant, getting or applying for unemployment benefits, in school or training at least 20 hours a week, in drug or alcohol treatment, caring for someone who is disabled or ill, or earning $217.50 or more a week.
People unable to work because of a physical or mental health condition are also excused. American Indians, Alaska Natives, Urban Indians and California Indians were added to the list on November 1, 2025.
Two groups that used to be excused were removed on the same date. Adults 24 or younger who were in foster care on their 18th birthday and people with military service, regardless of discharge status, now have to meet the rule unless another exemption fits.
The state says exemptions have to be reported and may need proof. Anyone who thinks one applies can contact the county or Tribal Nation eligibility worker, who will ask for verification if the file does not already show it.
How the three-year clock runs now
A statewide fixed period began on January 1, 2026, according to a state notice on the time-limit reset. It runs through December 31, 2028, and the next one starts in January 2029.
Each month a person meets the work requirement adds one month of eligibility back. Current recipients do not need to reapply, but former recipients who may be eligible again do.
SNAP Employment and Training, the state’s job program for people on SNAP, can help with job goals, training and support costs, and an eligibility worker can make the referral. The state’s employment and training page also lists the Minnesota Food Helpline at 1-888-711-1151 for food shelves, though that line does not have case-specific information.
A third of the new group may lose benefits
The Department of Children, Youth, and Families projects that roughly a third of the newly covered adults will eventually lose benefits because of the work requirements. That projection is the state’s estimate, not a count of people already cut off.
What decides which third is mostly paperwork: whether hours get reported each month and whether an exemption that already applies is on the household’s file. Those are the same two items the county worker checks.
Unsure if Minnesota’s work rule reaches a SNAP household?
The detail people miss is that an exemption only helps when it is on the file. A 58-year-old with a health limit or a caregiving duty can still run through three months of the clock if nobody recorded it.
The SNAP & Medicaid Renewal Organizer covers the SNAP work-rule time limit and who is exempt, and it keeps those details next to the 2025 work-rule changes. It also includes a state pack for Minnesota, so the exemption list and the reporting steps sit in one place.
See the SNAP work-rule time limit and exemption guide for Minnesota households →
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
