BISMARCK, N.D. (KFGO) – North Dakota has been flagged by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a decline in its performance administering a federal food assistance program.
In a letter addressed to Governor Doug Burgum last week, Secretary Tom Vilsack noted that North Dakota’s most recent scores in key performance metrics for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) had fallen below acceptable federal requirements and national averages. Similar letters went out to governors of 43 other states. All of the letters urged the governors to prioritize the timely and accurate processing of SNAP benefits and said the USDA would take a proactive role in ensuring the states improve their SNAP operations as quickly as possible.
SNAP provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budgets of lower-income families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency. Households or individuals with low income who meet certain requirements are assessed for eligibility for assistance based on income limits.
North Dakota has one of the lowest rates of SNAP use per capita in the country, ranking 47th, with just 5.8% of residents receiving benefits.
A key metric the USDA monitors for SNAP is each state’s application processing timeliness (APT). North Dakota was consistently in the top six performing states in the nation for APT from 2011-2016, ranking as high as 2nd in 2014. In 2017 the state dropped to 29th and in 2019 it ranked 41st. Published rankings were suspended in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2022 North Dakota fell to 43rd, with an APT rate of 76% compared to the federally acceptable APT rate of 95%. Vilsack’s letter said North Dakota’s APT had slipped even more dramatically in the most recent data from 2023, to about 55% (state rankings are not yet available for 2023).
The USDA says the state is struggling to perform acceptably when it comes to case and procedural error rates (CAPER) as well. While North Dakota’s 2022 CAPER of 34% in cases in which applicants were mistakenly denied, terminated, or suspended and did not receive benefits was below the national average of 44%, the USDA says the most recent performance data from 2023 is concerning. State-provided data shows North Dakota’s negative error rate ticked up to 56% in 2023. A recent UDSA Food & Nutrition Service report shows that North Dakota’s national CAPER ranking had fallen from 26th in 2022 to 39th as of August of 2023. The state was 3rd overall in CAPER rankings in 2012, and was consistently ranked in the top half of states for performance in this area between 2012-2019.
Administration of SNAP by the N.D. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has changed in recent years. In 2019, the legislature moved social services from a county-run model to a Human Service Zone model in which staff in 19 different zones would handle SNAP along with other financial assistance programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, heating assistance, and child care.
Then, a year ago, the state again redesigned its service delivery model for SNAP in an effort to balance workload disparities between higher populated and more rural areas. In a letter responding to Vilsack dated Monday, February 12, new DHHS Commissioner Wayne Salter said that application processing rates are improving as a result of the changes. He added that the state is responding to dropping performance metrics in other ways, including having quarterly meetings with and getting technical assistance from federal partners, exploring new technologies to improve operations, and expanding and improving quality management for new and existing staff.
Salter said the pandemic had a significant impact on all the state’s social service programs and caseloads, with the state’s Medicaid caseload increasing by 50%. Comparatively, the national average increase for Medicaid enrollment during and after the pandemic was about 30%.
Salter said, despite these challenges, the state is “committed to upholding the integrity of the program (SNAP) and ensuring assistance is delivered in a timely and accurate manner.”
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