This story first appeared in How We Care, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring original reporting and perspectives on how we care for one another at all stages of life. Sign up for free here.
By Sarah Boden | Spotlight PA
More than 2 million Pennsylvanians participate in SNAP, a federal program that helps low-income people afford food.
SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by states. According to the federal agency, most households that use SNAP include older adults, people with disabilities, and families with kids.
Accessing this support in Pennsylvania isn’t always easy, however, according to the recently released “Barriers to Benefits” from Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Just Harvest. The organization, which advocates for policies that reduce hunger, found that SNAP’s complicated rules and extensive paperwork can stand in the way of people getting benefits.
Ann Sanders, director of public benefits policy and programs at Just Harvest, spoke with How We Care about the findings of the report and ways SNAP could better serve Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents. In this conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Sanders discusses how the state’s administration of SNAP has improved since the group first analyzed it in 2013, and where it continues to fall short.
Spotlight PA: The 2013 survey found that SNAP had major issues with paperwork, and the 2024 survey found this continues to be the case. What are the ramifications of someone going without SNAP support?
Ann Sanders: People who receive SNAP are living on very tight budgets, so going without this food assistance is a big deal.
Some things that we heard from families were that they fell behind on their utilities or their rent in order to buy food. Some people decide to feed their kids, but to skip meals themselves. One person said that they basically just survived on empty carbs, like pasta and bread.
The state does have a process to get your benefits if the paperwork is late; they reopen your benefits within that same month, but you still have a delay. It’s devastating for families.
About 20% of the folks who took our survey said they experienced something called “churn,” which is when benefits are temporarily stopped. They might miss a month or two of SNAP support, and then get back on. And of those folks, nearly half said it was because of the time it took to receive paperwork in the mail that they missed their benefits.
To cut down on churn, your report calls for improvements to the system of handling and sending SNAP documentation. Can you give me some examples?
One of the things we’d like to see is just having a general rule that if the packet has a mail date on it … there should be a standard policy of that deadline being at least three weeks out.
I recently saw someone’s paperwork where the mail date was Dec. 2, and they were told to get the paperwork back by Dec. 10, but they only got their paperwork on Dec. 6. That’s not enough of a turnaround time.
It would be good for the state to pilot how long it actually takes their mail to get from one place to the other. Because we hear that depending on where you live in Pennsylvania, the mail takes longer.
I think there’s an assumption that if you mail something out from Harrisburg to anywhere in the state, that it is going to get there within three days. And that assumption is not accurate.
Also, it takes a while to fill out the paperwork and gather the required documentation. The renewal forms are 18 pages long. A lot of the stuff is prefilled, but you still have to go through it and find pay stubs and things like that. It’s not something that just takes an hour to get done.
Your survey also found that nearly one in five respondents reported not being treated with dignity or respect when seeking SNAP benefits.
There are lots of horror stories we’ve heard over the years of people being treated unfairly.
A lot of folks who have never applied for these benefits before are already hesitant to apply. They don’t know the rules. They don’t know what to expect. Then to have someone on the phone who assumes, “Oh, you should know this,” is incredibly unacceptable.
At an event that we had to release the “Barriers to Benefits” report on Dec. 5, [Department of Human Services] Secretary Val Arkoosh said her department intends to do more customer service training and trauma-informed training for staff. They agree that it’s not acceptable for someone who’s asking for help to be treated that way.
Since the customer service can be so bad, why don’t people just apply for SNAP online through Compass?
Although Compass has become more accessible, it is still a long application that asks you to create an account and a password. You have to remember the account and password later to check on the application’s status or send documents that way.
And what we found is that some people, especially older adults, really do not feel comfortable using technology. They don’t necessarily trust it. Or they’re relying on family members to help. And when people feel like they’re forced to use technology they sometimes forgo benefits, or are delayed in getting benefits.
Signing up for SNAP is actually a simplified process for older adults, because it’s just a two-page application. But if you walk into the county assistance office and say, “I want to apply for SNAP,” they don’t ask you questions like, “Are you on a fixed income,” or “Are you over the age of 60?”
Instead, they give you a giant packet for all of the benefits at once. This is really intimidating and complex because it asks tons of questions, some of which are not relevant to getting SNAP.
Are there things in this report that surprised you?
Honestly, as an advocacy organization, we only hear from folks when things go wrong. So the fact that across the state, more than 40% of people said that when they called their county assistance office that they get to talk to a person right away or after a brief hold, I was really surprised to see that. That’s a huge improvement from 2013 and more of an improvement than what I had expected.
[Editor’s note: The 2013 report found that just 16% of callers were able to speak with someone.]
Also, service at the state’s customer service call center has really improved in the last decade because people are generally getting through right away. That wasn’t the case in 2013.
How can caregivers ensure that the person they’re working with is getting the benefits that they need and are entitled to?
Don’t be afraid to reach out to organizations in your area that provide that type of assistance. DHS has contracts with local organizations across the state to help people through the process of applying for SNAP. We’re one of them. So are a lot of food banks; those are also good places to reach out to for assistance.
Also, there are rules and protections that allow caregivers to be authorized representatives on cases. As a result, that makes it possible for caregivers to get copies of the SNAP paperwork.
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