State to review food stamp application process

The state’s auditor will review Texas’ food stamp application process in an effort to identify bottlenecks contributing to a backlog that has left thousands awaiting benefits.
Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Thomas Suehs requested the outside assessment last week, several months after the federal government threatened to cut off the state’s food stamp funding because of the delays.
A lawsuit filed last month on behalf of several low-income families and two Rio Grande Valley non-profit groups also claimed that the state violated its own laws by consistently failing to meet the 30-day deadline for accepting or denying applications for food stamps.
"We must fix our system so that it works for everyone," Suehs said in a statement. "I’m asking the state auditor to help us identify both immediate and long-term solutions to make sure all Texans are able to get their cases processed on time."
In a letter dated Dec. 22, the commissioner asked the auditor’s office to examine possible inefficiencies in the current process used to determine food stamp eligibility, approaches taken by other states in handling applications and recommendations for eliminating a backlog that has slowed down response time to new applications.
Compounding the problem, Suehs said in his letter, is a spike in new applicants due to the lasting impact of recent hurricanes, other natural disasters and the economic downturn.
This fall, the U.S. Department of Agriculture threatened to withdraw federal funding of Texas’ food stamp program as the percentage of new applications approved on time dipped to 57 percent statewide.
Since then, the Health and Human Services commission has increased its timely completion rate to 63 percent by adding more employees and dedicating a team to work through the backlog.
That number is closer to 72 percent in the agency’s region that includes the Rio Grande Valley, a spokeswoman said.
Still, the ongoing delays left thousands of families across the state without access to food, said David Hall, executive director of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid. Hall’s organization represents the seven families and two charities — La Union del Pueblo Entero, of San Juan, and the Brownsville-based Proyecto Juan Diego — that asked a judge to address the backlog.
Since the suit’s initial filing in a Travis County state District Court all of the individual plaintiffs — many who went months with no response to their applications — have become certified to start receiving government assistance. But more potential plaintiffs are coming forward every day, Hall said.
The legal aid group hopes to submit a new list of 70 food stamp applicants who have waited more than a month to the court some time in January.
"It’s probably in the interest of everyone concerned," Hall said of the state audit. "But there’s still a lot of work left to do."
No timeline has been set for the audit’s completion.