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Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs) are applicants or recipients between the ages of 18 and 50. Unless an ABAWD lives in a waived area, meets work provisions, regains eligibility, or meets an exemption, they are eligible for SNAP for only 3 months in any 36-month period and are considered to be time-limited.

Time-limited ABAWDs may “earn” additional months of eligibility, or avoid using 1 of their 3 entitled months, when they work or participate in work activities an average of 20 hours per week (80 hours per month), meeting their work provisions. These do not have to be consecutive months. For each month that the person works or participates in work activities at this level, the person “earns” a month of SNAP benefits. Minnesota operates an all-voluntary SNAP E&T program, exempting all work registrants, including ABAWDs, from mandatory participation in SNAP E&T. Participation in SNAP E&T is 1 way time-limited participants may earn additional months of SNAP benefits.

Countable work or work program activities are:

●	Working, including paid employment, self-employment, in-kind, and unpaid work. This includes use of accrued sick or vacation time, if available.
●	Participating in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services equal to or more than the ABAWD work requirement of 20 hours per week, averaged 80 hours per month.
●	Participating in Trade Adjustment Act (TAA) services equal to or more than the ABAWD work requirement of 20 hours per week, averaged 80 hours per month.
●	Participating in SNAP E&T activities. NOTE: For a time-limited participant, Supervised Job Search and Job Search Training are not countable activities unless they make up less than 50% of the required 80 hours per month, or the participant is co-enrolled in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), under section 236 of the Trade Act, or a program of employment and training for veterans operated by the Department of Labor or the Department of Veterans Affairs.

See Combined Manual 0011.24 (Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents).