Growing SNAP applications backlog leaves El Paso families waiting on food stamps
Whistleblowers in Texas have sounded the alarm on SNAP application delays since August, but some applicants are still waiting months to receive their food stamps.
More than 136,000 low-income people in El Paso County are eligible for food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to March data.
Recipients receive a set amount of monthly benefits on a card they can use to buy groceries at any store that accepts SNAP. In general, people have to renew their benefits twice a year by providing documentation that determines if they are still eligible.
Federal law requires states to process SNAP applications, including renewals, and issue benefits to those eligible within 30 days.
In March, Texas processed 61% of all applications and 59% of all renewals in a timely manner – a declining rate since September 2023, when Congressional leaders, including U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar of El Paso, urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to resolve the delays.
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El Paso food bank assists families with SNAP delays
The El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank has employees who help people expedite their delayed SNAP applications. A staff member will sit with the applicant and call 211, the statewide phone number for social services.
April Rosales, social services site manager at the food bank, said in the fall the nonprofit received 10 or more people a week asking about their months-long SNAP delays. That number has now dwindled down to about two to three people a week.
The escalation process has been smoother, Rosales said.
Previously after calling 211, an operator would tell them to either fill out a new application or continue waiting. Now an operator will check if the application has the most up-to-date documents and expedite the case. Oftentimes an applicant has to submit a new pay stub because their application has sat in the queue long enough that the previously submitted pay stub is now outdated, Rosales said.
Applicants typically get approved within a week after the escalation and receive benefits retroactive to the date the application was submitted. The retroactive benefits is why she tries to avoid re-filing an application, Rosales said.
SNAP, Medicaid delays are ongoing
Anonymous employees at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the state agency that administers the federal SNAP program, warned state lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott that delays were exceeding six months at the end of the year.
Jennifer Ruffcorn, a spokesperson for Texas HHSC, said in an email that “lead time is higher than normal” because of an increase in SNAP applications and the renewal process for six million Medicaid clients over the course of 12 months.
The number of SNAP applications and renewals in Texas have risen by tens of thousands since September, with the agency processing more than 200,000 applications and renewals in March, according to state data.
Texas HHSC is also tasked with the process of removing ineligible people from Medicaid after the expiration of a federal pandemic rule that allowed people to remain enrolled in Medicaid during the public health emergency. Before the rule ended on March 31, 2023, states could not remove people from the health insurance program.
The effort to redetermine people’s eligibility led to nearly 1.7 million Texans losing their health insurance by the end of 2023, mostly because of procedural reasons, The Texas Tribune reported. It also created a backlog in SNAP applications.
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Texas tries to address SNAP applications backlog
Ruffcorn said Texas HHSC has used federal funding to invest in recruitment and retention of workers who determine benefits eligibility. More than 97% of eligibility worker positions have been filled, she wrote in an email.
Last year, Texas HHSC submitted a “Corrective Action Plan” to the USDA outlining problems and fixes over the last few years. The agency did not provide the plan to El Paso Matters, nor specify which solutions it had already implemented.
The Austin American-Statesman and KXAN Austin reported in December 2023 that the plan included moving 250 staff members from other projects into processing SNAP and other benefits applications. The agency would also send 600 new staff to Medicaid training to quicken the process for combined SNAP and Medicaid applications.
Disclosure: El Paso Matters CEO Robert Moore is the board chair for El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank. The newsroom’s policy on editorial independence can be found here.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas struggles to process increase in SNAP applications
