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America's top court has granted an urgent ruling that permits for now the Trump administration to delay billions in funding for food benefits used by millions of low-income Americans.

Administration officials appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal judge ordered that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called food aid, should be distributed in full to beneficiaries by Friday.

This assistance has been caught in uncertainty by the continuing budget impasse, with the Trump administration arguing it could only afford to partially fund it.

Friday's ruling means £3.04bn can be held back for now pending further legal hearings.

SNAP's Reach

The Snap programme is used by tens of millions of U.S. citizens - approximately 12% - and costs almost $9bn a month.

Earlier this week, a Rhode Island judge, the presiding judge, accused the Trump administration of blocking nutrition funds "for political reasons" and said that without the aid "16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry".

He ordered the government to pay out the assistance completely.

Legal Background

The Thursday ruling came after that required the government to use contingency funds to at least partly pay for the programme for last month.

This court battle was spurred after the USDA, which manages the food stamp program, stated payments would be halted in the fall due to the lack of funding over the shutdown.

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, the Agriculture Department said it was working to comply with the various court orders and was making efforts to doll out the complete amount.

Supreme Court Action

Supreme Court Justice Justice Jackson granted the order late Friday, called an temporary halt, effectively freezing the previous decision for 48 hours while government lawyer's seek to overturn it.

This dispute over food aid funding has become among the most contentious of what is now the longest government shutdown in American history.

Broader Impact

Federal employees have been without pay for more than a month and flight operations has been disrupted as Congress members cannot reach a compromise to fund the government.

Some states have drawn on their own financial reserves to keep Snap payments flowing, which are valued at around six dollars to users via electronic benefit cards which can be redeemed in food markets.

However, certain states have said they are cannot cover the funding which has been lost from the U.S. treasury.