As states tighten their eligibility requirements for food stamps, that may leave as many as 1 million adults facing "serious hardship" next year, according to a new forecast.

Some of the country's poorest will be struck from the rolls in 2016 as states re-impose work requirements that they had allowed to lapse when the recession struck in 2007, according to a new report from the progressive-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank.

With the work requirements going back into effect, many states are planning to reinstate a three-month limit on food stamps for adults who aren't disabled or raising children and who don't have a job or are in a training program for at least 20 hours a week.

While that might seem fair -- after all, critics of the program would question giving food to people who aren't apparently willing to work -- the CBPP notes that most states don't offer job training to every adult who is at risk of losing their food stamp benefits.

"The loss of this food assistance, which averages approximately $150 to $200 per person per month for this group, will likely cause serious hardship among many," the report notes.

[Continued...]

----------------------------------------

^^ The reactionaries who are most in favor of imposing this kind of austerity measure in the midst of a banker-engineered depression are the very ones who care least about the fact that -- in today's corporate fascist economy -- there are consistently two to three times more people in need of work than there are job openings, and that there are hence millions of Americans who will consequently remain unemployed regardless of how much they grovel at the feet of prospective employers.

That's why I can't help but laugh whenever austerity ghouls start blabbing about how much they "care" about the poor.