Lincoln woman sues over slow processing of SNAP benefits

SNAP is an acronym for the Department of Agriculture's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps. 

Tami Leiting-Hall of Lincoln applied in mid-June for a renewal of benefits through the program that helps low-income people buy food.

By Tuesday, she still hadn't received word from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services or received aid for July, said James Goddard, program director and staff attorney at Nebraska Appleseed.

But the lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court in Lincoln isn't about money, he said. In fact, they aren't seeking damages.

"It's merely a suit intended to ensure that the ACCESSNebraska system can administer the SNAP program as it's required to do under state and federal law," Goddard said.

ACCESSNebraska is the HHS online and phone application system implemented in 2008 for public assistance and Medicaid. 

The plaintiff wants a federal judge to declare that Kerry Winterer, chief executive officer of DHHS, and Thomas Pristow, director of the Division of Children and Family Services, have violated Leiting-Hall's rights -- and the rights of others like her -- by failing to process and provide benefits to qualified people within the required time frames.

They also are asking a judge to find the state has violated federal administrative codes and regulations by failing to ensure SNAP households have the right to reapply and complete the process in time to receive benefits and to determine their eligibility within the mandated 30-day period.

Russ Reno, a spokesman for HHS, said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

The Nebraska Appleseed Center is asking the court to allow the case to go forward as a class-action suit.

In it, attorney Molly McCleery says Winterer's and Pristow's administration of ACCESSNebraska has caused and continues to cause widespread problems for SNAP applicants.

By the state's own account, Nebraska had an overall application processing timeliness rate of 69 percent for the 2013 federal fiscal year.

On Wednesday, Goddard called it a systemic problem that the state isn't meeting its 30-day deadline to get benefits to those who are eligible.

As a consequence, he said, Nebraska families are going hungry.

"And it's not just one or two, but potentially hundreds."

Thousands of Nebraskans apply for SNAP benefits each month. To be eligible, households must have a net annual income below the federal poverty line. This year, for a family of two, that's $15,730.

Those who get the benefit are subject to review of eligibility every six months. 

Leiting-Hall works about 35 hours a week at a fast-food restaurant, making $577 every two weeks. That's not enough to support her son, she said.

On June 16, she submitted a renewal application for SNAP benefits, providing her lease and electric bill and copies of her pay stubs before state workers requested them.

Then, on July 14, she called ACCESSNebraska and spoke with a caseworker, who said her case was pending and that the state had two days yet to process her application "and suggested she utilize community resources like food banks and soup kitchens in the meantime."

Goddard said there are many folks, like Leiting-Hall, working hard and not getting ahead, and the SNAP program plays a vital role in making sure they don't go hungry.

"There are a lot of people in this position that are waiting to get the basic necessities of life," he said. "And that's why this is important."

The suit asks the court to order the state to identify those from whom they wrongfully withheld benefits, to help them identify others like Leiting-Hall.