In a not-so-gentle reminder that Georgia needs to continue fixing the food stamp application process for its neediest residents, federal authorities sent the state a warning letter this week threatening to withhold millions of dollars in administrative assistance if Georgia doesn’t meet federal processing guidelines within a year.
The warning letter is the second to the state Department of Family and Children Services in just over a year admonishing the state for its “chronically poor performance” in delivering the nutrition program. Last year the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service threatened to hold back millions in administrative funds because of a backlog of unprocessed applications for what is commonly called food stamps. At one point the backlog reached 65,000. DFCS employees worked overtime to clear the backlog on the orders of Gov. Nathan Deal and Georgia did not lose the money.
It is unclear how much money the federal government is threatening to withhold in administrative funding. The federal government provides about half, or $75 million, of the administrative funding for Georgia’s food stamp program. Administrative funding is separate from the money for food stamp recipients.
This week’s letter takes aim at the amount of time it takes to process food stamp applications, from the filling out of initial assistance request forms to the delivery of a food stamp electronic benefits card, which people use to purchase groceries.
Federal guidelines say the process should take up to 30 days. Georgia is exceeding that limit, according to the Food and Nutrition Service, which administers the national food stamp program. The FNS requires states to fall within that 30-day limit 95 percent of the time. In fiscal year 2013, the most recent year from which numbers are available, Georgia reached it just under 78 percent of the time, according to FNS.
Chronically poor performance
Georgia’s “chronically poor performance in timeliness is in direct conflict” with “provisions meant to protect a low-income household’s right to receive nutrition assistance benefits,” FNS regional administrator Robin Bailey Jr. wrote in the letter to the state on Wednesday.
The letter lays out a series of benchmarks the state must meet by June 2016 to be in compliance. Within 30 days, the state has to give the feds a detailed plan of how it will reach the goal. It must reach an 85 percent timeliness rate from July through December and a 95 percent rate from January to June 2016. It must also submit weekly progress reports to the federal agency, including the numbers of approved applications, as well as those still waiting to be approved.
In a statement, DFCS director Bobby Cagle pledged the agency would meet the deadlines.
“These are reasonable targets for the state to meet, especially as we continue to make changes to the system that are centered on our constituents,” Cagle said in the statement.
Beginning with a flood of residents who sought assistance during the recession, the state has struggled to serve its neediest people. Amid problems ranging from a telephone registration system that left applicants on hold for up to four hours to not having enough workers to shepherd benefit requests, by 2013 Georgia was 47th among all state SNAP agencies in terms of timely delivery of food aid.
The state has about 1.8 million people receiving SNAP benefits, but only 2,338 workers to serve them.
State to restructure staff
Rather than hire to reach the federal goals or require another round of overtime, the state will restructure its benefits staff and give them more training, said Ashley Fielding, spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Human Services. In the past, several workers would touch a single case, including one to interview the client, one to record and verify their personal and financial information, and yet another to give final benefits approval. Now, one caseworker will be assigned to handle all steps for a client. The call-in system will be relegated to providing general information or to allow clients to record changes in income, said Fielding.
“This is a gradual process that we’ll roll out over the next several months,” she said.
The FNS acknowledged the changes Georgia has already initiated and those it is planning to implement. But it also said the state has to execute them with haste.
“Timely access to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits for eligible low-income Georgia residents should not be contingent upon a modernized eligibility system,” Bailey wrote in the letter.
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