States Sued for Food Stamp Processing Delays

by Greg Plotkin · 2009-12-18 10:02:00 UTC
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Yesterday, Texas become the second state in the nation to be sued for failing to meet its own deadlines for processing food stamp applications.

Legal aid attorneys filed the suit in state district court and have asked a judge to force the state's Health and Human Services Commission to comply with their own 30 day timetable for deciding on non-emergency food stamp applications.

Across Texas, less than 60% of food stamp applications are processed on time, leaving thousands of needy families waiting months for state assistance.  These delays have gotten so bad that even local policymakers are calling for the state to make funding available in order to hire and train "the appropriate number of eligibility staffers for the food-stamp program."

This news comes just over one week after a Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled that the state of Maryland has failed to dispense food stamps and medical benefits in a timely manner.  The lawsuit against the state was brought by a woman who had to wait more than two months (twice the legally-mandated time frame) to receive her food stamp benefits.

Judge Barry Williams has given the state's Department of Human Resources until the end of 2010 to fully comply with a law that mandates assistance be received by applicants within 30 days.  There are currently more than 3,500 applicants in Maryland that have had their requests for assistance delayed more than 30 days.

Excuses are running rampant: there's not enough time, not enough trained staff members, not adequate technology to process all the applications.  However, if these agencies hadn't been ignoring the issue of backlogged applications for so long, the problem might not be as magnified as it is now in the midst of the country's greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression.

It also seems very disconcerting that lawsuits need to be brought against these states in order to make them comply with laws (which, by the way, they've set themselves) that help feed their neediest residents.

Oh what a country we live in.

(Photo credit: lotyloty on Flickr)

Greg Plotkin currently works for Flying Pigs Farm in Shushan, NY. He is dedicated to eliminating inequalities in who has access to healthy food and alleviating hunger.
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