Federal changes to public assistance programs are impacting thousands of Kentuckians.

That's because of President Donald Trump's big, beautiful bill.

And more changes are to come in tonight's legislative update.

Our Mackenzie Spink tells us, who is no longer exempt from reporting work requirements and who may need to start paying more out of pocket for groceries.

Able bodied adults without dependents are Snap participants who are subject to more stringent work requirements and time limits on receiving support.

Congress, through the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, expanded the eligibility for that type of public assistance.

Here are the changes.

Previously, if you were over 54 years old, you did not fit into the category of able bodied adults without dependents and were exempt.

But the age limit has been extended to 64.

If you had a child under 18, they were considered a dependent and you are also exempt.

Now, a child is only considered a dependents if they are under 14.

Exemptions for veterans, homeless individuals and former foster youth have also been removed.

Another change expected to affect over 10,000 Kentuckians involves households receiving energy assistance before congressional changes through House resolution one or the Big Beautiful Bill.

If a family received energy assistance through the program like EAP, that automatically contributed to their Snap eligibility.

It used to be that anybody who signed up for energy assistance could get the standard utility allowance.

H.R.

one changes it so that it's only going to apply to households that have an elderly member or a disabled member in their household.

We're looking at a about 13,000 households that will receive a small decrease in their, in their snap.

And I, shouldn't say small because some of them will receive about 24%, will actually receive 110 to $120 less snap per month because of this change in H.R.

one.

It used to be that entire counties could be exempt from work requirements if the unemployment rate was too high, or if an area didn't have enough job openings.

117 counties out of 120 were previously exempt, but that criteria has now changed.

So currently today, we do not have any counties that will meet that exemption requirement starting November 1st.

No county will be exempt.

The USDA notified us that that exemption would terminate.

And in all of our all of our counties will have to do work requirements.

So we went from 3 to 120 of of doing the work reporting requirements.

Kentuckians who use the Kentucky Works program or who receive cash assistance from the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program or K tap, are also seeing reductions in support.

But these changes aren't a result of federal cuts.

The state's Department for Community Based Services has had to re budget because of unexpected growth.

In 2023, DCS expanded its eligibility for Kentuckians to access programs funded by the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families federal fund.

These dollars fund K Tap Kentucky Works Program and child welfare programs like Foster care.

When we made these changes, we projected growth in the program of about 10 to 15%, which was within the budget.

The ten bucks could support because prior to that, we had decreasing caseload, year over year.

And we had, we had ten of carry forward funds.

However, the actual growth ended up being over 50%.

And those carry forward funds will be gone by fiscal year 2026.

CBS attributes the unexpected growth to the rising cost of foster care, especially for high acuity children who need special accommodations.

And 2023, we were just beginning to see, youth with complex needs or high acuity youth, in which we could not find placement or treatment for this was a new issue for Ecbs.

We had never been unable to find a placement or treatment for a kid in foster care.

As a result, families who receive K tap cash assistance can expect to receive 35% less in support, and the transportation supports in the Kentucky Works program are being reduced by 50%.

Lawmakers are concerned about the effect this will have on Kentucky families.

I mean, in East Kentucky, we don't have public transportation.

We don't have access.

Transportation is the number one issue for families, whether it's from domestic violence to health care or getting to school.

So, I mean, I think long and hard before you prejudice areas with service deserts.

We do have problems when food is not in the, in the, you know, in the cupboards and the lights are getting cut off in the water.

And I've had kids in my home has come from those types of homes.

My concern is, is are we are you all anticipating potentially even more growth in kids coming into care because of these cuts?

BCBS says it's working with families to find them alternative supports whenever possible.

We want to make sure that we are, you know, getting services, supports, funding and benefits to those who need that, who need them.

And when we when we have the availability to do so, we do.

But we also, have budgetary responsibilities as well.

BCBS says to make the programs whole again, it would need $32 million from the state for Kentucky edition.

I'm Mackenzie Spink.

Going to thank you McKenzie.

Snap reporting exemptions weren't downsized wholesale.

New exceptions were actually added for Native Americans, Alaska Natives and other indigenous people.