State food stamp program gets bonus

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By NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star

The Nebraska food stamp program is No. 1 in the nation in weeding out folks who have applied but aren’t eligible for help in buying food.

And with that “zero percent negative error rate” comes a bonus —$466,000 — that the state likely will spend on equipment and training, according to Health and Human Services System leaders.

“This is the fourth year in a row that we have received a high performance bonus,” said Gov. Dave Heineman during a news conference Friday. He praised “all the Health and Humans Services employees for a job well done. Their services are deeply appreciated.”   

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While applauding the zero error rate, some Nebraska leaders believe the state also should improve another rate — the percentage of lower income Nebraskans who are receiving the food stamp benefit.   

 Almost 52,000 Nebraska households, representing about 120,600 people, receive food stamps, a record high for the program. Last year, Nebraskans used about $127.5 million in food stamps, funded completely with federal tax dollars.

But only about 60 percent of eligible Nebraskans actually receive benefits, said Sen. Gail Kopplin of Gretna. Kopplin is sponsoring a bill that would help raise public awareness about food stamps and hopefully raise the percentage of people using them.  

The measure, LB171, which would require HHSS to do more outreach work, is at the second stage of the three-stage approval process in the Legislature.

“A lot of people are not being served,” Kopplin said. That means Nebraska is passing up millions of federal dollars that would help lower income families buy food and would be spent in local grocery stores, he said.  

“I commend them for doing a good job on the one hand (denying benefits to those who don’t qualify), but we need to do a better job of getting out the word to people who do qualify,” he said.

Health and Human Services is doing a good job of denying benefits to people who don’t qualify partially because the state took advantage of federal improvements to the admissions process, said Becky Gould, executive director of the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest. Now the state needs to take advantage of the federal tools available for outreach, for letting people know about the food stamp program, she said.

There are federal funds available for outreach, and the state could use advertising, from billboards to public service announcements, already prepared by the federal government, she said.  

The advertising would not only make people aware they might be eligible for the federal food stamp program but also would reduce the stigma associated with using food stamps, she said.  

Of Nebraskans who would appear to have incomes that don’t provide enough money for a healthy diet, only 40 percent are applying for food stamps, she said.

In addition, the food stamp program, which provides an electronic card with money for food each month, provides an economic benefit to the community, because the money — all federal funds — is spent in local stores, she said.

When asked about the proposed legislation to expand outreach programs, Heineman said that some people may not want to apply for food stamps. “That is still an individual choice for Nebraskans. That is their choice, and we ought to respect it,” he said.

Families with incomes of up to 130 percent of the poverty level qualify for food stamps. For example, a Nebraska family of four with a monthly gross income of $2,167 likely would qualify for some food stamp benefit, probably $2 to $20 a month.  

Families with much lower incomes would receive more, up to $518 a month for a four-person family.  

Nebraska and Vermont tied for the lowest error rate in the nation for 2006, and Nebraska was among five states to receive a bonus. This is the second year in a row that Nebraska has been No. 1.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.