NASHVILLE, Tenn. — On Wednesday, the Tennessee Department of Human Services spoke with lawmakers in the Senate during a hearing and discussed delays in how applications are processed for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
SNAP benefits effectively provide funds people can use for food, and they are designed to make sure people can still eat if they have low incomes. Across Tennessee, people have complained that it can take months for their applications to be processed before they ever start seeing benefits.
The department has around 35,000 pending applications, and each one requires an interview with applicants. Federal law requires the interviews, and the department asked federal leaders for a waiver to help speed up application processing. It was turned down, and the department plans to appeal the decision.
"We understand the desperate urgency of helping economically disadvantaged Tennesseeans to get food on the table, and we have organized ourselves, and I am very comfortable that we are trending in the direction that we will solve this problem," said Clarence Carter, the commissioner of the state's Department of Human Services.
He said the department has been working on implementing a new eligibility system to replace one that's around 32 years old. The new system is called EBMS and Carter said once it was completed, the department had to start transitioning into it.
"Our eligibility workers were working pretty much with bubblegum and spit, but managing to get the job done," he said.
It began transitioning in the summer of 2023, which placed a sudden burden on eligibility workers. He said the workers needed to continue working in the old system while the transition was completed, while also helping complete the transition itself and also completing training on the EBMS system.
"That work, converting from the old system and transitioning to the new, training on the new, that happened between June and December of last year," he said. "That volume slowed down our regular application process. It clogged the pipeline if you would."
Carter said usually, the department operates as a vertical organization operating 17 programs. Because of the application delays, it started pulling staff off programs to help get through the backlog of SNAP applications. Staff from the executive team, quality assurance team and human resources team are helping process applications, he said.
"We've taken a sort of all-hands-on-deck approach, and I think they're going to drag me into it. Everyone's reviewing applications, and I think they're going to drag me into it. That's the urgent nature of what we're doing here," he said.