News that Hawaii will change its rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (808ne.ws/3XGb3Bf), which is federally funded, to enroll thousands more recipients while removing a disincentive for them to work more has prompted questions. Some potential members of an expanded beneficiary pool want to know when they’ll be able to receive SNAP, formerly called food stamps, while other readers don’t like the idea of increasing Hawaii’s welfare rolls, regardless of whether the taxpayer funding comes from the federal or state government.
Here are some questions and we’ll answer more later this week.
Question: When will people who fell off the SNAP cliff because they earned a little more money be eligible? Please be specific about the timeline.
Answer: It’s too early to say when enrollment will expand because Hawaii’s Department of Human Services, which administers SNAP, is figuring out how to upgrade its decades-old computer system to accommodate an impending administrative rule change, which was announced last week by the governor, inspired by research and analysis posted by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization. DHS’s Hawaii Automated Welfare Information system, known as HAWI, may need significant changes.
“The department has started the process of assessing the HAWI system to determine what modifications will be required. This process is ongoing and a more specific timeline cannot be provided until the assessment of the system is complete. A thorough assessment is required due to the impacts that this change may have on the system’s ability to determine eligibility for other programs, such as TANF or General Assistance benefits,” Amanda Stevens, a DHS spokesperson, said in an email Wednesday.
TANF stands for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Q: How much will the HAWI system upgrade cost?
A: That’s unknown at this point. “The cost to upgrade HAWI will be dependent on the assessment, which has started and is ongoing,” Stevens said.
Q: Does DHS currently have the funds to upgrade HAWI? Or will it need to seek a budget increase to do so?
A: “The department will require additional funds to upgrade HAWI; however, a budget request cannot be submitted until the assessment is complete and there is an accurate cost estimate for necessary upgrades,” she said.
Q: Where can we get an idea of whether we’ll be eligible for SNAP under the new rules? We live paycheck to paycheck but never applied before.
A: The first table in the UHERO report, at 808ne.ws/4ex1GuC, provides a rough guide, showing where SNAP benefit cliffs exist now and how they would level out under the new policy, at various household sizes and net incomes. For example, a family of four now becomes ineligible for SNAP (falls off the cliff) at just under $3,000 a month of net income, but that amount would rise to nearly $6,000 under the new policy, the table shows. SNAP payments are highest for households with zero net income (the maximum is $1,759 a month for a family of four) and decline as net income rises — abruptly now and more gradually once the new rule is implemented.
SNAP benefits will continue to be calculated using net monthly income, which is the amount left after rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, child care, medical care and other eligible nonfood expenses are deducted from an applicant’s gross monthly income.
Now, “if their net income went up to just 101% of the federal poverty rate, they would be cut off altogether. Under the new rule that won’t happen; it gets rid of the arbitrary cutoff, although net income is still used in the calculation,” said Nate Hix, a social impact policy manager at the Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute and co-author of the UHERO paper.
As it stands now, some SNAP recipients aware of the cliff may avoid earning or reporting any income that would end their SNAP eligibility, while recipients unaware of the cliff have been shocked to lose SNAP when they earn even a little more money. The average SNAP payment in Hawaii is $3,200 a year, according to the governor’s office.
Q: How many more people are going on SNAP because of this?
A: The UHERO paper estimates an administrative rule change would make about 50,000 Hawaii households newly eligible for SNAP, but only 13,000 to 14,000 of them would apply for the benefit. The conservative assumption is based on current take-up rates (the share of eligible households participating) and may prove too low, the report says. The addition of 14,000 would generate about $45 million a year in federally funded SNAP payments, it says. As noted, the new policy is not yet in effect.
About 130,000 Hawaii households are now enrolled in SNAP. Even under the current rules, more households are eligible than participate. For more information, see humanservices.hawaii.gov/bessd/snap/.
Mahalo
On Sept. 21, two young gals found my wallet and turned it in to the crackseed store at Manoa Marketplace. Instead of putting my wallet in my purse, I had unknowingly left it on the rock wall seating area outside the store. It’s comforting to know we have young honest people with integrity in our community. A million mahalos from this kupuna for making my terribly stressful day into a miraculous one. I feel so blessed! — Char
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