A Fort Collins single mom said she was left owing $2,007 late last year due to a Larimer County Department of Human Servicesworker's error on her application for the federal food assistance program commonly referred to as "food stamps."
Courtney Davis didn't realize she was being overpaid until after she stopped receiving benefits in October.
On Oct. 30, the state sent Davis a letter telling her an "admin error" caused her to receive food assistance for six months spanning May to October 2015. The error was reportedly the result of a case worker forgetting to include Davis' tips as a part of her income as a waitress.iphone 5s replacement screen The additional pay put Davis outside of income restrictions to receive benefits through SNAP.
FAQ:Poverty vs. self sufficiency in Larimer County
Davis plans to make $20 monthly payments to repay what she received, but there's a possibility the government will recoup the remainder of what she owes from her annual tax returns.
went to these people for help. But because they messed up, now I'm in an even more messed up situation than I would have been if they didn't give me any help at all. Department of Agriculture.
The state's rate of agency error was nearly double the national average.
Colorado's SNAP program is administered by each of the state's 64 counties. Policy experts and county officials claim part of the reason for the preponderance of errors is a rapid uptick in demand for public assistance services coupled with a lack of additional staffing, trainingand other resources.
In 2014, Colorado provided about $767 million through the SNAP program to 6 million clients. Mistakes made by agency computers or workers resulted in about 1 percent of that money $9.2 million in benefits being over awarded to Colorado families, according to federal data from 2014.
The data from that most recent report doesn't reflect system changes the Colorado Department of Human Services made in January 2015, said Lena Wilson, division director of food and energy.iphone 5s replacement screen Wilson said the state focused on improving the timeliness and accuracy of case management to decrease the incidence of agency error.
"A review of next year's activity report should reflect the improvements in Colorado," she said.
The 2015 report won't be released until after October, according to the USDA.
Lawmakers seek a fixState legislators aren't waiting to see whether those 2015 changes will increase the efficiency of Colorado's SNAP management.
On April 19, a bipartisan trio of state senators Sen. Pat Steadman, D Denver; Sen. Kevin Grantham, R Ordway; and Sen. Kent Lambert R Colorado Springs introduced a bill to improve application processing timeliness and paymentand reduce case and procedural error rates.
"Right now, everything gets masked at the state level. If some counties are dragging us down, everyone suffers," Steadman said. "This bill tries to enact some reforms to create additional accountability for counties as they administer the state's food stamp program."
takes a carrot and stick approach to improving SNAP management in all 64 counties.
The bill encourages county human or social service departments to exceed federal performance measures for administering the program.iphone 5s replacement screen If the state receives federal bonus money for its timeliness, accuracy and improvements, those dollars would be passed on to the successful performing counties.
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However, if the state is sanctioned by the USDA for poor administration of the SNAP program, poor performing counties would be fined.
"This is an overall positive thing for counties, because we've been saying for some time that we've been feeling our capacity is really at risk," said Laura Walker, director of the Larimer County Department of Human Services.
Public assistance cases have doubled since 2011 and staff has struggled to meet the demand for services, Walker said.
If passed, SB190 would shift $550,000 to the Colorado Department of Human Services to analyze how counties administer public assistance programs. After the study, legislators or county commissioners would need to approve funding for more resources for human or social service departments as needed.
"As a state, we're not performing well," said Michelle Webster, manager of research and policy analysis at the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. "From our perspective, giving the state some additional capacity, which they so badly need, will help the state take on a more proactive role in improving the performance of the SNAP program."
Despite similar studies in past years, Walker is hopeful further staffing, training and other resources will follow passage of SB 190. After passing the Senate, the bill was introduced in the House on Tuesday.
The current system could discourage some families from getting the food assistance they need, said David Super, professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Super studies the strengths and inefficiencies of SNAP at both the federal and state levels.
