The Alaskan food assistance program has processed the earliest applications that have been stalled by a backlog that has plagued this state’s system over more than an entire year However, the majority of applicants have to wait up to three months before receiving benefits.
Statewide, the Division of Public Assistance administers the federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program also known as SNAP which was used to serve around 90,000. Alaskans in the year that was around 12 percent of Alaska’s population.
In April 2023 at the time as the wait was getting highest the queues of thousands of people waited for assistance to purchase food items at times for up to eight months. State officials blamed cyberattacks and a flurry of paperwork after the COVID-19 public health crisis ended but some state officials have cited the constant understaffing.
Director of Public Assistance Deb Etheridge told the media that the department has added more staff to handle applications. She also said that it was the Federal Food and Nutrition Service which manages the program asked that the government prioritize most recent application and renews.
“We received some advice from FNS in which they strongly suggested that we concentrate on the initial backlog since some of the cases were extremely outdated,” Etheridge said. “So we did. We attacked. We cleared the backlog that was there prior to September. 1. Then it has unfortunately led to the creation of a new backlog.”
Etheridge said that the current wait time is three months. However, she added that those who have very little income or assets that qualify to apply for expedited processing are able to access benefits without waiting while the agency tries to get caught up.
Etheridge stated that applications from what she refers to as”the “new backlog” are much easier to review due to the fact that applicant’s information is likely to be current. The applicants are less likely to have relocated or changed jobs within the time they’ve spent waiting. In addition, she noted that there are two teams that handle renewals and applications: One team is working on the currently pending paperwork, while another is devoted to the backlog.
Etheridge could not give any estimate on the time it could take to work through the entire list of 8,500 applicants and renewals pending However, she stated that the backlog team was working on about 500 cases per week.
“We’re only really focused on completing our backlog of work,” Etheridge said. “And we’re dedicated to solving the problem so that we don’t get into this mess again.”
Etheridge stated that the department is currently working on an application online for SNAP that they hope to launch in December. She believes that it will in making applications more efficient since people are less likely to miss mandatory fields on the online application. The department is also planning to establish an online client portal that will manage applications. This, Etheridge stated that in the future, it will to make the back-and-forth process more clear.
