States warn food stamp recipients to budget early benefit payments due to shutdown –
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
State agencies are warning food stamp recipients to carefully budget theirgrocery purchases once they receive their February benefits weeks earlier than normal due to the partial government shutdown.
The Department of Agriculture’s backup plan for paying out Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits amid the lapse in funding means it could be 40 days — or longer, in some cases — before additional money is added to recipients’ benefit cards. There is also no guarantee about when nearly 39 million low-income Americans will next receive another payment to help thembuygroceries. Story Continued Below
States that have large populations of food stamp recipients — including California, Texas and Florida — are already warning recipients that they need to make February benefits last, as the early payments are issued this week. For some recipients, the accelerated timeline will result in them getting their February benefits a full month earlier than normal.
“Unless the federal shutdown is resolved, benefits for March MAY NOT be available,” read a sample message California officials sent to county welfare directors to help spread the word to recipients. “We are waiting for federal guidance and will keep you informed.”
When USDA officials unveiled the backup plan last week, they did not say how they intended to fund March benefits, if the spending impasse continues.
A daily briefing on agriculture and food policy — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.
In Ohio,another state with a large population of SNAP participants, householdswill see an extra month of benefits on their “Ohio Direction Card” on Wednesday, Jan. 16. The state typically doles out the monthly SNAP benefit to recipients on even-numbered days between the 2nd and the 20th of the month. The roughly1.4 million people in Ohio who participate in the program are given an issuancedate based on their case number.
“These benefits are intended for use in February,” the Ohio Association of Foodbanks said in a flier to SNAP recipients this week. “You WILL NOT receive additional benefits in the month of February.”
USDA announced earlier this month that it found a way to pay out $4.8 billion in February SNAP benefits using an obscure budgetary provision in an expired continuing resolution. But the plan requires benefits to be distributed to recipients by Jan. 20.
As POLITICO reported last week, pulling off the accelerated timelinenationwide — a first in the program’s history — presents major logistical and communications challenges for states as well as grocery stores. SNAP, still known to many as food stamps, is a federally funded program that’s administered on the state level.
Monthly benefits are loaded onto Electronic Benefits Transfer cards, known as EBT cards, which act like debit cards but can only be used to purchase groceries. The average SNAP household receives about $250 per month. Most states stagger when they release monthly SNAP benefits, in part to make it logistically easier on grocery stores.
Complicating the rollout of the shutdown-induced plan, however, is the fact that Jan. 20 falls on a Sunday during the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, so many states are issuing benefits well ahead of the deadline.
In Texas , officials announced that they plan to load EBT cards — called “Lone Star Cards” in Texas — with February benefits by Jan. 20. The state typically staggers when benefits are distributed in the first half of the month, so some residents receive their monthly benefit on the 1st, others on the 3rd and so on through the 15th. About 3.5 million recipients in Texas receivea total ofsome $410 million in SNAP benefits per month, officials said.
“The federal government has alerted states that they can issue benefits until federal funds are no longer available; it is unclear from the federal government when that will occur,” Texas Health and Human Services said this week.
In California, officials are planning to load EBT cards for their program, called CalFresh, starting Wednesday, Jan. 16, through the Jan. 20 deadline. California usually staggers the uploading of monthly benefits between the 1st and the 10th of every month. CalFresh serves about 3.8 million people.
Kim McCoy Wade, chief of the CalFresh and nutrition branch at the California Department of Social Services, issued a memo to county welfare directors thanking them for their help with the “extraordinary effort” to ensure that February benefits are paid out despite the shutdown.
California officials further urged county welfare directors to help warn program participants about the accelerated benefits schedule by posting messages on county websites, posters, telephone systems and social media.
“If you receive your February CalFresh benefits early, you should plan your food budget knowing that these benefits will be the only benefits provided through the end of February,” one sample message read.
The Trump administration’s backup plan did not tap into a contingency fund of $3 billion that Congress provided for the program last year. One month of SNAP benefits costs about $4.8 billion, however. USDA has declined to discuss other funding options that might be available if the shutdown is not resolved before it is time to pay out March benefits.
“Americans should have access to food, and we will use all available legal options to make that happen,” Brandon Lipps, administrator of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service and the department’s acting deputy undersecretary of food, nutrition and consumer services, said last week.
In Florida, where some 3 million people participate in SNAP, there is already confusion about how the early rollout will work — and a lot of questions about what will happen in March.
The Florida Department of Children and Families announced on Facebook that February SNAP benefits will be doled out on Jan. 20.
“There will not be an additional deposit in the month of February,” the department wrote on Monday. The post, which has been shared more than 7,300 times, has already sparked several erroneous comments warning that the announcement is “fake news” and that benefits aren’t coming early.
The post States warn food stamp recipients to budget early benefit payments due to shutdown – appeared first on Denny Boy’s Interesting Blog.
from Denny Boy’s Interesting Blog http://bit.ly/2AReKKN via Article Source
from Tumblr http://bit.ly/2AQANBo
No comments:
Post a Comment