New computer system causing confusion, benefit delays for food stamp recipients

COLUMBUS — The homeless man had made it through the application process, barely, but now he was stuck. His food-assistance money seemed to have taken a digital detour and he didn’t know what to do.

“They loaded his benefits onto his old card,” said Solomon Dean, a deputy director at the Open Shelter in downtown Columbus.

To sort things out, the man needed to provide a previous address — the one he used four years ago, when he last applied for aid through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP. “He’s been homeless,” Dean explained, using his own cellphone for the call that stretched past the half-hour mark. “He doesn’t know his last address.”

Desperate to get the food stamps, he started guessing.

The woman on the other end of the line indicated the session was over. “She said, ‘You only get two tries,’ ” Dean said, his voice rising last week as he recounted the experience. “I said, ‘What do you mean he only gets two tries?’ ”

Read more: https://www.ohio.com/news/20190120/new-computer-system-causing-confusion-benefit-delays-for-food-stamp-recipients