SNAP benefits delayed with new eligibility rules that may take weeks to implement in Minnesota

Minnesota officials are encountering multiple bureaucratic problems with issuing food-assistance benefits to families, even after two judges ordered the federal government to use contingency funds to make the benefits available despite the government shutdown.

Tikki Brown, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families, said in a news conference Tuesday there was no timeline for when benefits for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be paid to recipients.

“We’re incredibly disappointed about the information we received from [the U.S. Department of Agriculture],” she said.

In an average month, 440,000 Minnesotans receive SNAP benefits. In Minnesota, SNAP benefits would usually have started to roll out on Tuesday, on the fourth of the month.

The USDA, which administers SNAP, said in late October it would suspend payments starting Nov. 1, arguing it could not use contingency funds to keep the program running during the shutdown. But two lawsuits, including one co-led by Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, sued to keep SNAP funded with federal judges agreeing the USDA must use contingency funds to provide payments.

In court filings Monday in the two cases, the USDA said it would use close to $5 billion in contingency funds to provide partial benefits to families in November.

In a memorandum sent to state agencies Tuesday, the USDA said SNAP allotments would be cut in half. Brown said households will get a 50% reduction in benefits and an additional 30% reduction if the household has one member who is working. SNAP participants in Minnesota receive an average of $6 a day.

One issue is the USDA has issued new procedures that will slow down the process for issuing benefits to participants.

Brown said the new procedures will require Minnesota to “recode” its system for determining applicants’ eligibility, which may take weeks to achieve.

“We were hoping for the least burdensome, cleanest way for us to issue benefits and unfortunately the information we received today is a really highly complex calculation that our team’s working on,” she said.

She later added, “It’s not anything that any state has seen before.”

Brown also said a vendor that works with 40 states to process benefits and load them onto participants’ payment cards is now rejecting SNAP applications that were filed in October. Brown said the vendor is doing so because it has received unclear guidance from USDA and is unsure it will be reimbursed by the federal government.

That means thousands of people “will expect benefits on their card and will go to the grocery store and not have free benefits available, and that’s very concerning to us,” Brown said.

In the meantime, the state and several municipalities have earmarked additional funds for food banks and other food-assistance organizations. Some restaurants are also offering free food to SNAP recipients.