ATLANTA — Georgia's SNAP benefits program, currently beset by a renewals backlog the state has been working to clear, is getting extra help to deal with the ongoing delays.
But the greenlight for extra hours to help with the backlog didn't come until nearly two months after the Georgia Department of Human Services (DHS) first requested overtime as the backlog began to mount.
According to documents 11Alive obtained through open records requests, DHS knew in early May that current caseworkers could only complete 44% of SNAP renewals -- leaving tens of thousands of families without support.
They were projecting at the time they could complete 68,750 renewals out of 157,000 outstanding cases.
The agency started asking for help and overtime approval the very first week of May, as the number of people desperate for food support continued to grow.
The timeline works out like this:
- May 3: DHS asked the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget for $600,000 in American Rescue Plan funding to cover overtime for 525 caseworkers for the next three months. According to the request, overtime could potentially increase the number of SNAP renewals processed by 10,000 cases per month.
- June 20: 11Alive asked DHS if employees would be offered overtime to deal with the delays.
- June 22: DHS responded to 11Alive, saying employees can receive comp time for voluntarily working extra. They also offered schedule benefits and stipends for non-casework staff.
- June 26: 11Alive filed an open records request asking for overtime requests between DHS and the Office of Planning and Budget.
- June 30: A second, nearly identical overtime request for the $600,000 was placed and approved the same day. That request says more than 96,000 SNAP renewals are pending state action with approximately 50,000 overdue going into July.
When asked why the initial May request was left pending for nearly two months only to be re-requested on June 30, the Office of Planning and Budget shared the following response:
“As with any request for additional expenditure, OPB worked with the agency to examine staffing levels and workload demands to determine reasons for the backlog and identify near term and long term solutions to addressing the current backlog and preventing future backlogs that can create delays in clients accessing benefits they are eligible for. Continuously requiring caseworkers to commit to overtime is not a sustainable long-term solution to increased workload demands and can result in employee burnout and increased turnover, which further damages the agency’s ability to keep up with workload. By working with the agency, we were able to approve a short-term overtime catch up plan in addition to identifying opportunities to leverage technology to reduce application processing time, recruit additional staff, and cross train staff working in other federal eligibility programs to examine SNAP applications as well. This should better enable the agency to manage workloads moving forward to hopefully prevent backlogs from forming that would delay benefits for eligible recipients.”
Following the overtime approval, Ife Finch Floyd, director of Economic Justice of the left-leaning Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, weighed in, saying the state could also be using its own resources to address the overtime and investment of workers.
“One-time federal funding or just federal funding in general is not necessarily the answer to all of our problems,” Floyd Finch said. “We have the resources to fund essential functions of government. We're collecting far more tax revenues than we're spending. So the state should use its own resources to pay for the overtime for these workers who are doing what they can to make sure that they can get families their SNAP benefits.”
More on Georgia's SNAP backlog
RENEWAL DELAYS
This is not the first time 11Alive has reported on recipients having to wait. In November, the state also faced a backlog of renewals that left families scrambling ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday. In response, the USDA FNS granted Georgia a waiver allowing the state to extend certification for those households up to six months.
A spokesperson for Georgia DHS did not answer 11Alive’s question as to whether postponing those renewals contributed to the current backlog but did confirm a “higher-than-normal number of SNAP renewals coming in” is partly to blame for the current holdup, with a seasonal spike in renewals stemming from back-to-school applications also a factor.
“Without federal flexibility on how we process applications/renewals, this problem will continue,” the agency said.
A PUSH FOR TECHNOLOGY
Georgia's Department of Human Services has made requests to the federal government to utilize certain processes they say will more quickly fix the backlog, including requests to use attended bots (i.e., bots operated by a human user) to automate processes without caseworker interaction and approval for ex-parte renewals (a term that describes an automatic renewal without any input from the SNAP recipient) when "necessary information is already known and sufficient."
A spokesperson from Georgia DHS told 11Alive federal regulators were "willfully holding up our attempts to streamline and expedite these applications/renewals."
"We are working as fast as we are allowed to under the circumstances dictated by their unwillingness to improve the process for the benefit of Georgia families,” a DHS statement said.
A spokesperson for the USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) meanwhile said the agency is evaluating four requests "involving emerging, somewhat untested technology" from Georgia.
“As these requests involve emerging, somewhat untested technology, FNS must first assess the allowability of the request in terms of statute and regulations and second, if allowable, determine to what extent the waiver may increase or decrease processing times overall for the State on a permanent basis,” the statement reads.
The agency is also looking at similar technology related requests from other states.
SEPTEMBER 30 DEADLINE
Georgia is already taking advantage of an interview waiver "to streamline the SNAP administrative process and help to disposition cases faster." The waiver, offered by the USDA FNS, is intended to provide relief as all states deal with the complex Medicaid unwinding and redetermination process and adjust back to regular SNAP rules after the pandemic.
Yet, that flexibility is expected to expire September 30 and was always meant to be temporary, David Super, professor of law at Georgetown University and an expert who has followed Georgia SNAP issues, explained.
“Many states have phased out the waivers. They figured out what they're going to do in place of one of them,” Super said. “And one by one, they work their way through the waiver, so they get back to normal operations.”
According to Super, the ongoing worker shortage continues to hamper efforts in Georgia.
“I think because of its staffing shortage, Georgia has been holding on to everything it can till the last minute,” he said. “But this does leave the serious risk of falling off a cliff when it all comes to an end.”
A DHS spokesperson said the state is hopeful the backlog will be resolved prior to the Sept. 30 waiver expiration, when regular SNAP interview requirements are expected to resume.
11Alive viewers who want to speak with a reporter about the delays can email the newsroom.