IT’S NOT JUST money to buy food that’s at risk now due to the historically long federal government shutdown, Gov. Maura Healey said Wednesday, while maintaining that the state isn’t able to use its own substantial reserve fund to plug growing gaps in safety net programs.

Home heating assistance via the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), child care programs and nutrition benefits aside from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) like the Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program (WIC) have also run out of funding or are at risk of it, Healey said.

“A million residents in Massachusetts denied SNAP. Another 300,000 in Massachusetts denied heating assistance funding right now from the federal government. A separate ‘nother 300,000 Massachusetts residents who received notices that their health care premiums are going to go up through the roof, in some instances, increasing by as much as $20,000,” Healey said during an appearance on “Boston Public Radio.” 

Healey also referred to federal workers in Massachusetts who are not receiving pay during the shutdown and are filing for unemployment. 

A federal court last week ordered the Trump administration to pay partial SNAP benefits. The United States Department of Agriculture on Nov. 4 sent guidance to states delineating that “partial” means the maximum benefit households are able to receive is 50 percent of their traditional benefits. 

According to an update on the Department of Transitional Assistance’s website, the agency estimates that it will take “approximately” one week for DTA and the EBT vendor to make “systems changes” to send November SNAP benefits to cards. The agency’s site says it expects to be able to issue partial benefits “sometime during the week of November 10.”

“The amount of SNAP benefits a household will get depends on household circumstances like household members, income, and expenses. Households with income will see the greatest reduction in their November SNAP benefits,” according to DTA. “This will greatly reduce the amount of SNAP benefits that people will get, and will bring tens of thousands of SNAP clients benefits to zero.”

Healey said Wednesday morning that she did not know when November Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits would be available.

Some advocates have urged the state to tap its $8 billion rainy day fund to fund food assistance, a step that Democrats who run Beacon Hill have resisted so far. Asked why she hasn’t done so, Healey said, “To be clear, I want to do everything that I can to support these families and those who need food.” 

“SNAP benefits are about two $220 million a month coming into Massachusetts. We cannot begin to make that up. I just laid out, you know, the other things that are coming — SNAP ran out last week, Saturday. LIHEAP ran out Saturday. WIC runs out in another week,” Healey said. “Head Start — I had to advance money the other day to Head Start in order to keep 2,000 little kids in child care.”

The Healey administration last week said that it will use $13 million in home heating assistance funding remaining from last year to help households “in the short term while the shutdown continues.”

“I’m trying to do the best I can to manage the situation,” Healey said. She added, “No state can come forward and replace what the federal government has taken away.”

House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz on Friday sent a letter to credit rating agencies to ask how pulling from the rainy day fund, with the expectation that the state may not receive a federal reimbursement, would impact the state’s credit rating. Asked about the letter and whether he was more open to tapping into the fund eight years after the state received a bond rating downgrade for pulling from it, House Speaker Ron Mariano on Tuesday called the situation “unprecedented times.”

“We don’t know how long this federal government is going to be shut down,” Mariano said. “So we’re concerned about drawing down anything from the rainy day fund, we wanted to be perfectly clear where the parameters were and what we are able to do to make sure our constituents can meet the challenges that are being faced by the federal shutdown.”

Senate Republicans last week suggested the state use regular appropriations to backfill assistance, drawing comparisons to the substantial amount of aid provided by the state during the emergency family shelter crisis. 

In response to a News Service inquiry about how much federal funding the state anticipates will be made available for SNAP, Healey’s office said that “DTA is currently assessing the cost of these new reduced benefits. From our initial review, we expect the total amount to be less than half of what we usually receive, since many recipients will see larger than 50 percent reductions or will receive no benefits at all.”

Healey did not respond directly Wednesday when asked when DTA will complete its review, but said that “we’re ready to go as a state when that money comes forward” and called the USDA guidance “intentionally convoluted so that states couldn’t even implement it.”