At the height of the food stamp backlog last November, Alaska Legal Services’ pro bono attorneys and other volunteers received more than 600 requests in one month from Alaskans demanding a fair hearing to collect their overdue food benefits.
As a result, there was no sense that the group would be unable to handle the 97 requests it received in July, says Leigh Dickey, the nonprofit’s director of advocacy.
However, the number is still alarming and twice as high as last month’s requests, she said.
Dickey said the state Department of Social Services is still struggling with the same problem: delays in processing paperwork.
“I believe the DPA claims to have fixed the problem,” she said. “But we are still seeing customers experiencing delays in recertification.”
Lawmakers and the governor have poured more than $70 million into technology solutions and new staff, but many Alaskans say they still can’t get their paperwork processed. The Department of Social Assistance, which processes the paperwork, said it is now completing 89 percent of applications on time. That’s a marked improvement from January through April of last year, when only about 5 percent of new food stamp approvals were completed on time.
Dickey said the department is also slow to respond when clients report changes in their household that affect benefits, such as losing a job. It requests documentation but does not file it, which can cause people to lose benefits. And she said when the DPA requests documents to verify employment, there is often confusion: “Clients collect that information and submit it by a certain date, but the DPA closes their case anyway.”
“It’s like one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing,” she said.
Technical updates
The Department of Social Assistance has taken many steps to expedite benefits for Alaskans. It is working to reopen offices, improve training for staff who process applications, and launched an online application for social assistance in late July.
The goal of the online portal is to reduce the likelihood of confusion over documents and increase the percentage of applications processed on time, officials say. Thanks to the online application, people can apply for food stamps, renew their applications or report changes – such as a lost job or the birth of a baby – from home.
It’s called Alaska Connect and is one of the department’s first steps in fully transitioning to a cloud-based system, said department director Deb Etheridge.
“The main goal is to provide better customer service to Alaskans and make it easier to access and apply for benefits,” she said.
However, Etheridge said it also helps reduce the administrative burden on approval technicians, which should lead to fewer delays.
“It actually helps us simplify the administration. So if individuals have access to upload their documents and fully complete their forms, then that saves the time we have to spend gathering additional information,” she said.
Alaska Connect does not allow users to check the status of their applications, but that ability will be available soon, Etheridge said.
But that inability to review claims is a major problem for some of the 97 people who filed complaints with Alaska Legal Services last month. Several of the state’s welfare offices are still closed after pandemic-related closures or are only allowing “general inquiries,” meaning people concerned about their benefits can’t get status updates or help troubleshoot problems if there are delays.
According to officials, only the Sitka office is completely closed. The Anchorage, Ketchikan and Nome offices are open for general inquiries only. That means you can drop off documents or ask basic questions, but you don’t have access to the licensing staff who can process applications or retrieve lost documents.
Etheridge said they are working toward fully reopening the offices and are making progress. The Fairbanks office last reopened in July, and the Ketchikan office is scheduled to reopen in August.
