We are in the process of providing guidance on how The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 changes the work requirements for SNAP able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs). This includes changes to the ABAWD exception criteria and ABAWD waiver criteria. We will update this page once the guidance is released.
We developed this guide as a supplement to program rules to help the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) state agency understand and operationalize able-bodied adult without dependents (ABAWD) time limit and work requirement policy.
We recognize that the state agency may use other terminology to refer to ABAWDs, such as time-limited participants. For the purposes of this guide, we use the terms ABAWD and time-limited participant interchangeably.
The 2023 edition of this guide incorporates updates to statute and regulation and replaces the 2015 edition, Guide to Serving ABAWDs Subject to Time-Limited Participation.