Missouri Releases January 2026 Benefit Report
A new year, the same trends…
Now online: the official January 2026 Monthly Management Report for the Family Support Division and the MO HealthNet Division of the Department of Social Services. [dss.mo.gov/re]
The number of Missouri citizens receiving food stamps and Temporary Assistance continued to drop in January while the Medicaid rolls remained steady.
Compared to one year ago (1/25), the number receiving Temporary Assistance dropped 23.8%. Food stamp participants dropped 5.5%. The total enrolled in Medicaid slipped by one tenth of one percent.
In the Trivia Department, January 2026 marks the first time in my records (going back to 1989) that Temporary Assistance payments to families for the month fell below $1 million! At times the state shelled out better than $12 million a month to struggling families.
Do not be concerned: the TA funds come from a federal block grant. Giving less to moms and kids means Missouri can funnel more to pregnancy resources centers.
Anyway, the prescribed demise of DSS continues to be policy in the Kehoe administration. Almost all state departments get starved but DSS gets an extremely meager ration of gruel. This crisis will expand as new tasks related to verifying work requirement compliance and citizenship monitoring will be added to their workload just as federal money is cut. That’s due to provisions starting now and being implemented in waves through 2028 in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Good luck with that.
Missouri January Benefits
January 2026 January 2021
Temporary Assistance
Children 7,884 14,835
Adults 2,508 4,750
TOTAL 10,392 19,585
Payments $983,297 $1,815,297
Per Family $ 228.99 $ 218.29
Per Day $ 7.39 $ 7.04
Food Stamps (SNAP)
Participants 623,903 692,593
Total Benefits $122,195,248 $146,701,431
Per Person $ 195.86 $ 211.81
Per Meal $ 2.11 $ 2.28
MO HealthNet (Medicaid)
Enrolled 1,262,105 1,039,754
Covered 1,294,397 1,033,321
Cost $1,290,227,467 $769,855,901
Per Patient $ 996.78 $ 745.03
Managed Care 1,034,730 755,531
Premium $ 418.50 $ 287.76
In case you forgot, January 2021 was prime Covid time: a SNAP bonus took effect that month.
Glenn Koenen