Alaska receives federal warning it’s at risk of losing funding over food stamp backlog

The Alaska Department of Health is at risk of losing federal funding because of an ongoing backlog in processing food assistance applications, federal officials told the state last month.

The state has repeatedly failed to comply with deadlines to process applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, leaving thousands of Alaskans waiting months for assistance. The processing backlog has persisted despite the state spending tens of millions of dollars to address it, and despite orders from both state and federal judges for the Alaska Division of Public Assistance to improve its processing times for food and cash aid.

The Food and Nutrition Office in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the SNAP program, sent a letter to state officials on March 10 informing them that federal officials would “initiate escalation procedures” in response to the state’s backlog.

According to federal data, the state was meeting the required processing deadlines for SNAP applications just 36% of the time. The federal government considers 95% to be “acceptable performance.”

The USDA’s warning may sound familiar: In February 2023 — more than two years ago — the federal Food and Nutrition Office sent a letter to state officials outlining “grave concerns” over the state’s delays in processing SNAP applications. At the time, less than 42% of applications were processed on time.

In the months after the 2023 letter, the administration of Gov. Mike Dunleavy put more than $60 million toward addressing the backlog through computer upgrades, contract workers and food for the state’s overwhelmed food pantries.

The state also removed an interview requirement, meaning that in many cases, the state approved SNAP applications without speaking to applicants as required under federal law. That change helped minimize the backlog, but it also led the federal government to impose a $12 million fine on the state for bypassing federal requirements.

Now, the interview requirement is back in place and the backlog has returned, too.

Less than half the applications for food assistance processed in February were done on time, down from 83% in July, according to data collected by the state. More than 2,700 Alaskans have been waiting more than three months for their applications to be processed — despite a requirement that all applications be processed in 30 days or less.

In the March letter, Food and Nutrition Service acting regional administrator Terry Gunnell warned that violation of federal law “can result in suspension or disallowance of administrative funding.” Gunnell gave the state 30 days to reply to the letter with its plan for improving its processing times.

Department of Health spokesperson Alex Huseman said the state responded with a request that federal officials approve the same improvement plan as the one proposed by the state in response to the 2023 warning.

“We remain committed to improving the timeliness of benefit delivery for Alaskans. We’re investing in systems upgrades — including our Document Upload feature and the SNAP portal — and continuing to strengthen staff training and support,” Huseman said in a written statement.

Leigh Dickey, advocacy director with Alaska Legal Services Corp., which provides free legal aid in civil cases to Alaskans in need, said that their attorneys are again seeing a large number of requests for help from Alaskans waiting on delayed applications.

In January, Alaska Legal Services received 434 requests for help with SNAP benefits, up from under 100 similar requests during the summer months. The previous high was over 600 applications for help with benefits in December 2023, Dickey said.

Dickey attributed the increased backlog to the reintroduction of the interview requirement last summer, amid a persistent shortage in qualified staff members.

The state reported that the vacancy rate among the staffers able to process applications was 30% in March. Out of 223 funded positions, 68 were vacant last month. The division says it is working hard to fill the positions, but progress has been minimal: Only three people were hired between January and March.

“If they had enough staff to do all the interviews and process all the cases on time, then that would be their problem fixed,” said Dickey.

Dickey said that when applicants need to be interviewed, many are told to call the Division of Public Assistance phone line within a certain two-hour window.

“So people do that, but they very, very often cannot get through because the phone line is already so busy,” said Dickey. “So people are really struggling to get their interview done because the phone line is so busy.”

“The phone line opens at 8 a.m., and we often tell our clients to call at 7 a.m., so they can just get queued up and be at the head of the line — even if their interview isn’t scheduled until 1 p.m.,” she added.

In 2021, Dunleavy vetoed funding for more than 100 positions in the Division of Public Assistance. Since then, Dunleavy has supported adding funding to the budget for temporary staff members to fill in for some of the permanent positions that he cut, though many of those temporary positions have remained unfilled since they were created, despite hiring incentives.

Dunleavy has also supported continued funding for a call center staffed by more than 130 contractors who reside outside Alaska and are not authorized to make benefit eligibility determinations.

Dunleavy did not respond to a request for comment about the Division of Public Assistance staffing and ongoing application backlog.

In a report to the courts, the Division of Public Assistance stated that productivity in March was hampered by a subsea fiber optic cable cut that disrupted phone and internet services in Juneau for three days. Additionally, computer systems used by the division experienced technical failures, the agency said in its report.

The division also said that the the worsening processing timelines for SNAP and Adult Public Assistance Applications was due to the division’s focus in recent weeks on addressing a backlog in importing documents submitted by applicants. The division was two months behind in processing the documents submitted to it by email, according to the report.

Dickey said that the division has repeatedly terminated benefits of some applicants “for failure to turn in some information that they actually already turned in to the DPA inbox.”

Applicants for assistance can request a hearing if their application is not processed on time. Once the request for the hearing is submitted, the state has 10 days to respond. In many cases, status hearings scheduled before an administrative judge can spur the state to process applications more quickly, Dickey said.