A Bipartisan Majority of Voters Want SNAP Benefits to Cover Diapers
By Dorian Warren
Millions of Americans struggling are to buy groceries for their families. In March, they got a major boost when the federal government increased SNAP benefits (commonly referred to as “food stamps”) by 15 percent. The provision, which lasts until September, will help families across the U.S. put food on the table and afford proper nutrition for their children.
While these expanded benefits are a massive step forward, they’re missing a crucial item on struggling families’ shopping lists: these benefits don’t cover diapers. SNAP’s existing guidelines prohibit benefits from being spent on anything other than food, even though diapers are essential purchases for parents of young children.
Leaving families on their own to cover diapers has devastating consequences for low-income families — especially women of color and immigrants. Diapers can cost up to $100 per month for each child. That means a single mother of two earning $2,000 per month would have to spend nearly 10 percent of her income on diapers, a near impossible expense to afford on top of rent, utilities, transportation and other expenses.
Research highlights the health and economic impacts of our federal government’s failure to help families afford diapers. A 2019 study found that one in 12 low-income mothers are forced to keep children in their diapers even after they’ve been soiled out of financial necessity — something that can lead to skin and urinary tract infections. Furthermore, about 20 percent of parents of young children have missed work or school because they don’t have enough diapers for childcare, daycare or early education programs.
The Biden administration can address these issues with a straightforward change: allowing SNAP benefits to be spent on diapers. This would improve child health and education, strengthen our economy and help millions of low-income families make ends meet.
Babies simply require diapers, so it’s no surprise that this policy change is also highly popular with voters. In a mid-April survey, Data for Progress asked a national sample of 1,210 likely voters whether they support or oppose allowing SNAP benefits to be spent on diapers. We find an overwhelming 46-point margin of support for this rule change (70 percent support, 24 percent opposed). Importantly, this provision enjoys clear majority support among both Independent and Republican voters, who want SNAP to cover diapers by margins of 42-points and 28-points, respectively.
This polling demonstrates that the Biden administration can extend SNAP benefits to include diapers with virtually no pushback from voters. As President Biden prepares to unveil his American Families Plan — the second part of his infrastructure and economic recovery proposal — ensuring that low-income parents can afford the supplies their children need should be a top priority.
Alongside this expansion of SNAP benefits, the Biden administration should extend Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) benefits to cover diapers. WIC is designed to improve the health of low-income pregnant and parenting women and infant children; covering diapers with these benefits would be a straightforward and highly impactful improvement. More broadly, Democrats should consider permanently expanding the Child Tax Credit so that every parent can afford diapers for their children.
With these changes, the Biden administration can uplift millions of families in need, improve health outcomes and facilitate our economic recovery — all while being politically popular, too.
Dorian Warren (@dorianwarren) is co-President of Community Change and co-Founder of the Economic Security Project.
Survey Methodology
From April 14 to April 15, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1210 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±3 percentage points.
Question Wording
Currently, people receiving SNAP benefits (commonly referred to as "food stamps") cannot use these benefits to purchase diapers. Would you support or oppose changing this rule to allow SNAP benefits to be spent on diapers?
Strongly support
Somewhat support
Somewhat oppose
Strongly oppose
Don’t know