The average wait time has ranged from around 30 minutes to three hours since January 2022. Those plaintiffs eventually received benefits after the litigation was filed, but they argue they’ll be at the “mercy of broken, unlawful system” once their yearly renewals come up.Ĭallers to the state’s SNAP interview phone line waited an average of 51 minutes before being connected to a representative, according to the most recent data, from July.Īnd that’s evidence of improvement, the state has argued: The agency has made “significant strides to make interviews more widely available and reduce wait times,” an attorney for the Department of Social Services wrote in an October filing. Plaintiffs describe subsisting on little food while using up prepaid phone minutes waiting on hold for an interview, and, due to disability, struggling to understand the application forms but being unable to get through the call center for help. The lawsuit asks the court to order the social services agency to make procedural changes that would bring the state into compliance with federal law. In the federal lawsuit, plaintiffs argue the state is denying benefits to eligible low-income Missourians, along with failing to provide reasonable accommodations to those with disabilities to apply. “And it’s a shame because that means people who are doing everything that they can to get SNAP are not getting them.” ‘At the mercy of a broken system’ “ has been on notice for quite a while that these problems are going on,” Holley said. ![]() One of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs suing the state, Katherine Holley, senior attorney at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, said 20 months into the litigation the state still has “extreme access problems.” Those barriers - including the system automatically hanging up on people before they get through and long wait times which lead people to abandon the calls - have persisted, data obtained in discovery and published in court filings shows. The lawsuit, which is ongoing, alleges that barriers to obtaining a SNAP interview, primarily because of the state’s “dysfunctional” call center, violate federal law and deprive eligible Missourians of benefits. Missouri’s troubled call center became the subject of a federal lawsuit in February 2022. “I understand waiting a little bit but people who work normal jobs can’t wait on hold for four or five, six hours.” She submitted a new application but didn’t get through for an interview in October either. Without getting through the call center for an interview, Dowell couldn’t be re-certified when her case came up for renewal in September and she lost the benefits she would’ve received in October. ![]() ![]() ![]() “I’m scared I’m not going to be able to afford food,” she said.Īn in-person or phone interview is required to enroll or be re-certified in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps - a federal program administered by the states that provide grocery benefits to low-income people.ĭowell has struggled to find child care that would allow her to drive to the nearest resource center, which is more than 20 minutes away and she is hesitant about bringing her kids - four of whom are under the age of five. When she hears that the queue numbers in the hundreds, she usually hangs up and tries again later.Īt stake is the $1,339 in monthly food benefits she relies on to help feed her five children - three of whom are special needs and have restricted diets. Other times she waits hours, her phone on speaker atop the kitchen counter, playing the hold music and occasional queue updates, while she watches her kids, only for the line to disconnect. Sometimes she is automatically disconnected hours before the call center closes because it has reached capacity for the day. Treasure Dowell has called Missouri’s social services department three times a day for nearly a month and has yet to speak to a human being.
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