Advocates seek to end SNAP interview requirements

Defense Network, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and the California Student Aid Commission are among the organizations calling for its removal. A spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture said the agency is reviewing the proposal.

SNAP helps low-incom efa milies supplement their budgets so they can buy groceries, snacks, and nonalcoholic beverages. An estimated 42 million Americans currently receive the monthly benefits at an average of $212 per person or $401 per household.

Currently, within 30 days of an application for SNAP, a state agency must complete an applicant’s initial certification interview, either by phone or in person.

Expedited interviews may take place within a seven-day window for people in particular need who meet certain income criteria. Seasonal farm workers, migrants, and certain other households may also receive expedited interviews.

Eligible households next receive a notice indicating their certification period, or how long they’ll receive SNAP benefits. Before that period ends, a participant’s local SNAP office contacts them with information on how to recertify.

Aviana Kimani, 24, a student at West Los Angeles College, received SNAP benefits for a year and a half before leaving the program, she said, in part because of the difficulty of scheduling the mandated re-certification interview.

Initially, Kimani had signed up for food assistance through her local food bank, but she found the process of going to the social services office in person to renew her eligibility during its open hours challenging because of work and school obligations. She was moving at the time, she said, and everything within the SNAP assistance program was paper-based in her case, meaning there was an additional challenge in keeping up with the process, changing her address, post-move.

“You don’t get to pick the time — it’s just given to you — and, usually since it’s during the day, it can inconvenience you if you work or go to school,” Kimani said. “You also don’t know how long the call will be. If I didn’t have to go through the screening process, I definitely would have been on benefits longer. But if you don’t keep up, you’re knocked off.”

When SNAP was established in 1978, the Agriculture Department kept the interview requirement inherited from the previous food stamp program, stating that the interview both helps the agency understand a household’s circumstances and helps the household understand the program.

“On the basis of past experience, the department believes that the interview is critically important to the certification process and must be carefully monitored and regulated,” the agency said at the time.

But interviews are not mandated by the federal statute governing the SNAP program, the organizations petitioning the government note. They argue that the current regulatory requirement is an outdated bureaucratic hurdle.

A 2021 review of enrollment data in California found that 3 percent of SNAP applicants in Los Angeles County were denied SNAP due to missing their interview, compared to just 6 percent who were denied for failing to meet eligibility requirements. Missed-interview denials were even higher among working families and college applicants, affecting as many as 40 percent of otherwise eligible applicants.