308K SC households receive this emergency COVID-era benefit. Now it’s slated to end

More than 308,000 households who receive extra federal food assistance will no longer get that money starting in February because a COVID-era program is ending.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, recipients have received additional assistance to purchase food.

That additional assistance will end on Jan. 31, and SNAP households will return to regular monthly benefit amounts, the S.C. Department of Social Services said.

A two-person household, which received $516 a month in SNAP benefits with the additional emergency allotment, will return to a $250 regular monthly allotment.

As of November, more than 308,000 South Carolina households, which account for more than 626,000 people, received SNAP benefits.

More than $170 million in benefits were paid out in November, according to DSS.

The COVID-era additional food assistance allotment will end as part of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill signed by President Joe Biden.

“By recently passing legislation that will end the emergency allotments, even Congress has acknowledged that they were always meant to be temporary,” Gov. Henry McMaster’s office said in a statement. “The governor made the decision that January will be the last month they’re available in South Carolina after careful consideration. It’s important to note that recipients will have time to plan as they continue receiving the emergency allotment for another month and that there will be no interruption to their pre-pandemic benefits.”

The emergency allotments were initially slated to end when South Carolina ended its pandemic state of emergency in July 2021, but the federal government allowed the state to continue to distribute the extra benefits.