Food stamp recertification delays hurt benefit recipients 

I am a longtime District resident, retired and a couple years away from claiming Social Security. I subsist on dwindling retirement savings, food stamps, and any housing assistance I can get, which is few and far between.

The D.C. Department of Human Services cuts off our food stamps — also known as the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP — at recertification time because they are slow and circuitous in processing the paperwork. They are not supposed to cut off benefits unless there is an eligibility issue or you miss the deadline they give you. 

During 2020, they did not have recertifications and did not cut off our benefits. It was wonderful. The financial and psychological effects of not having this stress made up for the angst of the pandemic emergency.

Since all my money goes towards rent, I really need the food stamps and cannot have a cut-off. It inches me closer to becoming homeless before I get Social Security, and then what is the point of getting Social Security? D.C. Human Services needs to help me.

In theory, continuing to qualify for SNAP benefits is easy. It simply requires turning in a recertification or mid-certification form, downloadable from the D.C. Human Services website, printable for free at any D.C. public library, on which you put sparse information indicating any changes in your household.

The problem is they keep asking for the same forms again and again, they only contact you to recertify but don’t warn when they are cutting off your benefits. They are completely opaque when it comes to where your paperwork is in the chute, and they churn you again and again unnecessarily. 

We need them to 1) continue benefits during recertifications; 2) move to annual, not semi-annual, recertifications; 3) communicate with clients; 4) provide housing assistance along with the food stamps; 5) get agency management to address D.C. Council chambers publicly to explain how quickly they are going to improve; 6) do whatever they have to do to keep us on our benefits, not the other way around.

And they need to apologize to us, because they are hurting us.

Yvonne Farrell is a retired longtime reader of Street Sense.

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Editor’s note: A representative from the D.C. Department of Human Services recommended that benefit recipients submit their recertification materials at least 30 days in advance of the deadline to allow adequate time for processing, then follow up by calling the DHS Call Center to report that they have submitted their materials. 

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