Food Stamps: Why the Federal Government Is Stepping In on SNAP Benefit Delays To Help
Written by
Josephine Nesbit
Edited by
Cory Dudak
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Food stamp recipients across several states are going months without their SNAP benefits. The problem is so bad that the federal government is forced to take action.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is funded at the federal level and administered at the state and local levels. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 requires that all eligible households receive SNAP benefits within 30 days of application, or seven days for those with expedited benefits.
In Colorado, the state is so slow at processing SNAP applications that it ranks in the bottom five states now under a corrective action plan with the federal government.
“Colorado is severely out of compliance with federal requirements,” the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service warned the state on Oct. 3, The Colorado Sun reported. “This has resulted in a hardship to needy households across Colorado who are not consistently receiving access to SNAP benefits within 7 or 30 days.”
Although some counties are processing more than 90% of new applications within required timeframes, others are only seeing rates around 50%, according to data obtained by The Colorado Sun. In counties that are the furthest behind, employees work mandatory overtime to keep up with the backlog of applications.
The state vowed to submit regular reports to the government detailing how services are improving.
Colorado is just one of many states struggling to deliver timely benefits. Newsweek reported workers at Tennessee’s Department of Human Services (DHS) transitioned to a new system for processing applications, which has been blamed for the state’s delays. A DHS spokesperson told the publication that approximately 20,000 applications older than 30 days are still pending.
The pandemic and higher grocery prices have increased SNAP enrollment numbers over the last several years. In an interview with Reuters, USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Nutrition Stacy Dean said state SNAP agencies are struggling to support higher caseloads.
On Feb. 8, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack sent letters to the governors of 44 states and the District of Columbia, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands urging them to reduce error rates and improve SNAP timeliness, Reuters reported. Only six states didn’t receive letters.
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