County governments in southern Colorado claim major improvement on food stamp benefit backlog

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - County Departments of Human Services in southern Colorado are reporting a vast improvement in how quickly they're able to process Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applications after previously being deemed among some of the slowest in the state, and the country.

Officials in Pueblo and El Paso Counties say they have shaved weeks, even months, off the wait times for residents applying for standard, expedited and renewed SNAp benefits.

El Paso County Department of Human Services (DHS) tells KRDO13 they only completed 21% of applications in a timely manner in late 2023. The federal government's guidelines are to have standard SNAP applications completed within 30 days, while expedited applications should be done within seven days.

Now, the El Paso County DHS says that figure has jumped up to a 98% on-time rate as of August 2024, even with over 42,000 cases on file, which is the second highest case load in the State of Colorado.

The department also says it shaved nearly 40 days off the standard snap application review process, which reached a high of 54 days earlier this year. They also said that expedited applications "are typically processed in even fewer days".

The improvements come after a very low timeliness rate in 2022 and 2023, which prompted the federal government to cite Colorado with a "corrective action plan" to address the SNAP backlogs, that "have a real and significant impact on eligible families who struggle to put food on the table."

El Paso County explains that in addition to consistent high-performance from their staff, including overtime and "allocation of responsibilities, and finding ways to refine workflow", DHS was able to utilize several tools from the state that helped with improving their processing time.

They added that in early September, the Colorado Department of Human Services recognized El Paso County's innovations and accomplishments, in their ongoing commitment to serving residents.

Meanwhile, Pueblo County DHS similarly says that their renewal and expedited snap applications have also been shortened, now at 90 percent timeliness, after it dropped to as low as 27% earlier this year in February and March.

"Our staff have worked diligently to improve the timeliness of service delivery." stated a spokesperson for Pueblo County DHS.

A full chart of their progress is shown below:

Pueblo resident Shandi Garduno, who spoke to KRDO13 in December of 2023, says those new and improved percentages are hard to believe, as she waits once again for her snap benefits to renew.

"I submitted all of my paperwork and they said their re-determinations are taking about 60 to 90 days to process," Garduno claimed after calling the department a few weeks ago about the status of her application, which was due by the end of September.

Garduno, who has a soon-to-be 6-year-old daughter, also tells KRDO13 that she has friends and family who are still waiting to be reimbursed by Pueblo County DHS, after a rash of identity thefts this year led to cash benefits being stolen out of residents' accounts.

You can read more about that situation, which KRDO13 reported on in June of this year, here.

She says that those reimbursements are also being delayed by 30 to 60 days, per her family members.

"My day-to-day question is, how much longer are they going to constantly take to keep pushing things back and update stuff the way that it's supposed to be?" she said.

In response to Garduno's claims about her applications, Pueblo County released this statement and data to KRDO13 on Wednesday, September 25, as they could not provide the proper response at the hour we reached out to them on Tuesday.

They explain that there are currently 34 standard SNAP applications that are beyond processing deadlines, which is 30 days, which there are still 684 applications pending.

When it comes to SNAP renewal applications, there are 18 that are beyond the processing deadline, and 1,344 that are pending.

In regards to Garduno's comments about residents seeing a backlog in filing situations of SNAP fraud, a Pueblo County DHS spokesperson says that they're all caught up for the month of June, and have about 7 reports still unresolved from July.

For August the department is nearly caught up as well with 13 reports still unresolved, and for the present month of September, there are two reports out of 103 that were filed, that have been resolved.

Pueblo County also wants to remind customers about the importance of using the security features within the ebtEDGE app (freezing card and changing your pin number) to protect their benefits. 

They say that the county/state’s ability to replace stolen benefits will end on September 30, 2024, unless congress acts before then. On 9/22/24 the House of Representatives introduced a continuing resolution (CR) to extend the federal authority to replace the stolen benefits through 12/20/2024 however it has not been signed as of today.