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The US Supreme Court has issued an urgent ruling that temporarily allows the Trump administration to withhold billions in funding for food benefits used by millions of low-income Americans.

Administration officials appealed to the country's highest court after a lower court ruled that the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called food stamps, should be paid out completely to recipients by the end of the week.

This assistance has been caught in uncertainty by the ongoing federal government shutdown, with the Trump administration arguing it could only pay for part of it.

Friday's ruling means £3.04bn can be held back for now until more court proceedings.

SNAP's Reach

This nutrition aid is issued by tens of millions of U.S. citizens - approximately 12% - and costs almost £6.9bn a each month.

On Thursday, a federal magistrate, the presiding judge, alleged the government of withholding food aid "due to political motives" and said that without the aid "16 million children are immediately at risk of going hungry".

The judge mandated the administration to pay out the assistance completely.

Court Proceedings

The Thursday ruling came after that ordered the administration to use contingency funds to at least partially fund the programme for November.

The legal saga was triggered after the USDA, which oversees the Snap programme, announced payments would be halted in November due to the budget shortfall over the shutdown.

Before the Supreme Court stepped in, the USDA said it was working to comply with the multiple rulings and was making efforts to distribute the complete amount.

High Court's Move

High Court Judge Justice Jackson granted the stay late Friday, called an administrative stay, pausing the lower court's ruling for 48 hours while government lawyer's pursue an appeal.

This dispute over food aid funding has become one of the bitterest of what is now the longest government shutdown in US history.

Wider Effects

Federal employees have been without pay for more than a month and flight operations has been disrupted as Congress members fail to agree a compromise to fund the government.

Several states have drawn on their own budget savings to keep food benefits going, which are worth around $6 to users via pre-loaded debit cards which can be redeemed in food markets.

But some states have said they are unable to replace the funding which has been lost from the U.S. treasury.