Anchorage is excluded from Alaska's SNAP work-rule waiver

Anchorage residents who receive SNAP must meet federal work requirements now, while recipients everywhere else in Alaska are covered by a waiver that runs through Oct. 31, 2026. The waiver is narrower than it sounds. Federal guidance says a time limit waiver "does not waive the general SNAP work requirements."

The Office of Citizenship Assistance laid out the split in its August newsletter, published Thursday by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. "If you live in Anchorage and receive SNAP, the work requirement applies to you now unless you have another exemption," the newsletter said.

The Alaska Department of Health's page on H.R. 1 impacts states that the federal Food and Nutrition Service approved Alaska's Good Faith Exemption waiver effective Nov. 1, 2025, through Oct. 31, 2026, and that it "exempts all Alaska census areas and boroughs from the ABAWD time-limit criteria, except the Municipality of Anchorage." Anchorage was excluded from the start, so the counter has been running there since Nov. 1.

Work requirements now reach adults 18 to 64, the department says, up from 18 to 54. The exemption for parents now covers those caring for a child under 14, down from under 18.

The department lists groups that stay exempt from those time limits regardless: people ages 56 to 64, certain households with dependent children ages 14 to 17, veterans, people experiencing homelessness, and youth ages 18 to 24 leaving foster care. Read against the wider age range, that leaves adults 18 through 55 exposed to the clock, with 55-year-olds newly caught.

The Division of Public Assistance describes the underlying time limit as three months of benefits in a 36-month period for able-bodied adults without dependents who are not working or in an approved employment and training program an average of 20 hours a week.

H.R. 1, signed July 4, 2025, drives the changes. Neither document says why Anchorage alone was excluded.

Recipients with questions about their case can call the Division of Public Assistance at 1-800-478-7778, where interpreters are free. OCA staff will read agency letters with people and explain them, though the newsletter said only DPA can decide eligibility.