Hundreds of people in Butler County have lost food stamp benefits during the past year, as waivers from an 1990s-era work-for-food requirement expired in March 2016, state data show.

The change has affected 572 people, or 74 percent of the 775 Butler County residents who had been eligible for food stamps before the stricter requirements — which require able-bodied adults between the ages of 18 and 49 with no children or dependents to work, volunteer or attend education or job-training for at least 80 hours a month — went into effect in March 2016.

The work requirements were waived by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the food stamp program, also known as SNAP, after the Great Recession began in 2008. But Pennsylvania's waiver ended in March of last year.

Statewide the rules have resulted in more than 30,000 people losing food stamp benefits, according to data kept by the state Department of Human Services. That's a decrease of about 25 percent, from 120,477 able-bodied adults without dependents receiving food stamps to 90,336.

Overall the state has 1.8 million people who receive food stamp benefits. The decrease in eligibility represented a 1.7 percent decrease in SNAP enrollment overall, according to data provided by the state Department of Human Services.

Butler County is one of 11 counties statewide that saw a decrease of 70 percent or more in the number of residents on the food stamp rolls. In Western Pennsylvania only Allegheny County (-78 percent) and Westmoreland County (-80 percent) were hit harder.

Food stamp rolls in neighboring counties — including Armstrong (-36 percent), Beaver (-49 percent), Clarion (-29 percent), Lawrence (-23 percent), Mercer (-55 percent), and Venango (-39 percent) — have also been affected by the work requirements.