After passage of Trump's ‘Big Beautiful Bill,' some low-income workers ask: How will I support my family?

Boston Globe

17-07-2025

Trump's so-called
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All told, this legislation will
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'Any time any sort of social safety nets are defunded, it makes me mad. Especially when I know that the savings from those cuts are going to the super-elite rich class, it's even more maddening,' said Talbot, 41, whose wife is a Navy veteran on disability.
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He can't even think about his daughters' college funds or saving for retirement, he said, because he's so focused on day-to-day survival.
'It makes me scared to think about how I will support my family if things get harder than they are,' he said.
The Trump administration has said the bill will eliminate 'waste, fraud, and abuse' and notes that the
In Massachusetts, one of the most expensive states in the country,
Several hundred thousand more rely on insurance purchased through the Health Connector, the state marketplace set up under the Affordable Care Act.
More than 300,000 residents could
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Lisa Ragland and other workers from Service Employees International Union protested the Republican Medicaid cuts near the US Capitol building in June.
Joe Raedle/Getty
About 175,000 people are at risk of losing some or all of their food stamp benefits due to expanded work requirements and the termination of benefits for immigrants here legally who fled persecution, many of whom are on a track to get a green card.
For Christiana Haramut, the uncertainty of if or how her benefits could be affected is the hardest part.
Haramut was working as a recovery coach in Holyoke until she was appointed guardian
of her now 3-year-old grandson and went back to school. She receives food stamps and MassHealth, in addition to cash assistance and a housing subsidy, and worries that every safety net could be at risk, including the Social Security her parents rely on.
'I'm assuming it will be under attack soon if it isn't already,' she said.
The drop in federal funding, coupled with increased work verification requirements and other administrative tasks, could have a big impact on access for working families if states don't increase staff and IT funding, said Victoria Negus, senior economic justice advocate at the Law Reform Institute. Massachusetts has the resources to mitigate the worst harms of the measure, she said, although it will require new investments.
The law also changed how benefits are calculated in the future, Negus said, essentially freezing in place anything beyond cost-of-living updates.
Data about changing shopping habits, for instance, such as the fact that most people now buy canned beans instead of less expensive dried beans, will no longer be factored in.
'The bill is the largest handoff of dollars from folks who are struggling to those who are wealthy,' Negus said. 'And the way that handoff happens is both clear-cut – slashing eligibility for SNAP and Medicaid – and very nefarious, by implementing changes that cut at the knees the ways that states like Massachusetts have tried to make these programs work better.'
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Data show that the
Among the biggest employers of people receiving benefits, the agency found, are major retail, restaurant, and grocery store chains such as Amazon and Walmart – led by billionaires Jeff Bezos and the Walton family, respectively, who stand to benefit greatly from tax breaks in the bill.
For the top fifth of all earners, these changes will result in an average 2.3 percent boost in after-tax income over the next decade, according to a the
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In Massachusetts, Dunkin' had the highest number of workers on SNAP, the GAO reported, and the state employed the most people receiving Medicaid.
Dunkin' did not respond to a request for comment. A state spokesperson said that Massachusetts 'will continue to ensure people receive the benefits they are eligible for and understand how these changes might affect them.'
The PCA Workforce Council, the state entity that employs personal care attendants to help elderly and disabled residents, also had a high number of workers receiving both types of benefits.
The 58,000-person workforce, comprising largely women of color, including many immigrants, generally makes between $20 and $22 an hour, and the majority of them are on MassHealth or subsidized Health Connector insurance, according to their union.
Care attendants' fluctuating hours and complicated employer status – hired by individuals but paid by the state – make eligibility requirements particularly complicated, said Rebecca Gutman, vice president of home care at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East. And this will surely be intensified by new paperwork requirements.
'PCAs struggle every day with balancing the pay that they're receiving, putting food on the table, taking care of their kids, accessing health insurance,' Gutman said. 'This law is absolutely going to exacerbate wage inequality in our country, and it's going to hit women and people of color the hardest.'
Personal care assistant Fe Guidry swept the kitchen floor in the New Bedford apartment of her client, Aquilina Gili.
MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
Fe Guidry, 70, lives in New Bedford and works as a personal care assistant for two elderly women. But one of them is often gone, either in Florida or the Philippines, leaving her with just 14 hours of work a week. She needs every cent of her $89 monthly SNAP benefits to buy groceries, she said:
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'The price of the commodities now is always rising.'
Low-income workers are already plagued with anxiety about being able to feed and care for their families, said Alicia Fleming, executive director of the economic justice nonprofit Massachusetts Jobs With Justice. And the still-unknown effects of the bill are adding more stress.
'I think what we're seeing now,' said Fleming, who relied on fuel assistance and day care vouchers when she was a young single mother, 'is that our society is set up to create an environment where corporations can thrive and the people who support those corporations, the workers, they struggle to survive.'
This story was produced by the Globe's
team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter
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Katie Johnston can be reached at