September 21, 2026
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Recipients of SNAP benefits will get a small increase in their monthly payments starting Oct. 1. The change comes after Pennsylvania officials said they are investing $7 million to make cards more secure.
Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits will see a small increase in monthly payment in an announcement that comes a few days after Pennsylvania officials said they will be investing $7 million to improve card security.
Starting Oct. 1, a cost-of-living adjustment will take effect, adding an extra $8 for one-person households and up to $52 for eight-person households in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other states. Monthly income qualifications to determine eligibility will stay the same.
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SNAP benefits are adjusted at the end of the fiscal year based on cost-of-living numbers across the country. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, the cost of groceries increased 2.7% between July 2025 and July 2026. Restaurant and takeout food costs also went up by 3.4%, although SNAP typically doesn't cover those services.
The changes follow a new statewide effort in Pennsylvania to prevent benefit theft. SNAP funds are distributed monthly via Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, which still have magnetic swipe strips instead of chip technology. On Thursday, state officials announced that the 2026-2027 budget included a $7 million investment to distribute chip-enabled cards, which will be mailed to residents starting in the spring.
Benefit theft occurs when small skimming devices are placed on checkout terminals, which let people steal the information from the card and spend its funds. In 2025, Pennsylvania's Office of State Inspector General launched a formal skimming response team, which has found and removed 144 devices across the state.
Earlier this month, the teams investigated 24 stores in Philadelphia and found devices which contained information from 3,000 SNAP recipients. The state said it prevented $1.2 million in SNAP funds from being stolen.
Chip cards are more secure than magnetic strips because they create a new code for each transaction, meaning that skimming devices wouldn't get individual card information.
Approximately 1.7 million people in Pennsylvania, 475,000 of whom reside in Philadelphia, receive SNAP benefits monthly. It primarily benefits families with children, seniors and people with disabilities.
SNAP benefit recipients have had a tumultuous few years. In addition to the security issues, work requirement changes put forth in President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" meant that roughly 98,000 Pennsylvanians no longer qualify for the program. And during the 43-day government shutdown at the end of 2025, SNAP benefits were paused, leaving many recipients to rely on other services such as food banks.
