Maine is the slowest state in the country in processing food stamp applications, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This poor performance drew a strong federal rebuke earlier this month. If Maine doesn’t improve its timeliness rate, the agency said, the state could lose more than $10 million in annual federal funding that pays for food stamp administrative costs.
Maine’s health and human services commissioner, Mary Mayhew, says the state has processed food stamp applications more quickly since the federal government crunched its numbers for January through June. But the food stamp slowdown fits with an unfortunate pattern of the LePage administration making it more difficult for people in need to access benefits, then boasting that is has reduced welfare rolls.
LePage is right to want to break the generational cycle of poverty, but taking away benefits doesn’t solve the problem. Jobs must be available, the state needs to emphasize education for low-income residents and wages must be high enough to cover living costs. Meanwhile, people with low incomes have to eat.
More than 98,000 households receive food stamps in Maine, with the majority — 57,725 — in the more rural 2nd Congressional District. More than a quarter of these households statewide had a resident over 60. More than half the 2nd District recipients had incomes below the poverty level; the median was $17,645 between 2014 and 2015. Nearly half the households included someone who had worked in the past 12 months.
These characteristics don’t paint a portrait of people taking advantage of the system. These are people who need help feeding themselves and their families.
Maine ranked last in the nation — out of 53 agencies that issue food stamps — for food stamp application processing time in the first six months of 2015, dropping from 36th in fiscal year 2014. DHHS processed fewer than 69 percent of Maine’s applications in a timely manner.
Ninety-five percent and above is considered acceptable. The federal Food and Nutrition Act entitles eligible applicants to benefits within 30 days of applying and, in some cases, within seven days.
In a Dec. 7 letter, Kurt Messner, the federal Food and Nutrition Service’s acting Northeast administrator, admonished Maine officials for slow application processing times but also for failing to provide adequate information to his department after several requests. In a statement Monday, Mayhew said the problems arose as the state moved to an updated application processing system and that the processing time has since improved. In his letter, Messner said his department tried to help Maine with the system transition but that the state failed, as recently as Nov. 30, to provide adequate data.
Meanwhile, the LePage administration has erected barriers in the way of low-income residents obtaining food assistance and celebrated the result: a shrinking number of food stamp recipients, but not less hunger or poverty.
In May, a DHHS news release proclaimed, “Maine leads nation in food stamp reduction.”
“With a clear focus on jobs and common sense reforms which incentivize self-sufficiency and personal responsibility, we are helping Mainers to begin the transition from poverty to prosperity,” Mayhew said in the release.
Left unsaid in the release is the fact that Maine’s poverty rate has risen in the time the LePage administration has worked to limit food stamp enrollment. The state’s poverty rate was 12.9 percent in 2010 and 14.1 percent in 2014.
The news release followed last year’s restoration of a work requirement for thousands of non-disabled, childless adult SNAP recipients. This year, DHHS moved to implement an asset test for the same population, making food stamps off limits for applicants with combined assets worth more than $5,000.
DHHS last year also quickly moved ahead with plans to require photos on EBT cards despite objections from the federal government.
The Department of Health and Human Services is the largest agency in state government, and it has a huge job to do. LePage, Mayhew and department employees have a responsibility to follow state and federal laws — even when they disagree with them. That responsibility should take precedence over moves to limit the reach of public assistance programs without addressing the root causes of poverty.
