Department of Social Services ordered a second time to improve SNAP
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Missouri Department of Social Services has been ordered a second time to improve the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program after receiving complaints of difficulties in booking appointments.
SNAP is a government assistance program that helps low-income families afford groceries.
Court documents reported that around 48% of SNAP applications were rejected after applicants were unable to complete an interview for the program.
The process of getting an interview required interviewees to contact the department by phone. Court documents found that the average wait time for callers was over an hour. The highest reported wait time was over six hours. There were also over 50,000 calls deflected to other channels and over 12,000 calls were disconnected around the 30-minute mark.
Similar complaints were stated in the last lawsuit, filed May 2024. U.S. District Judge Douglas Harpool ordered the department to submit a report of planned changes over the next 30 days, give monthly updates on applications and submit a detailed timeline of plans for the next 90 days.
In the new lawsuit, filed May 2025, Harpool ordered for tighter benchmarks for the department, including reducing the wait time to 20 minutes for 90% of callers and reducing the percentage of SNAP applications that were rejected due to interviews to no more than 20%.
"The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program has failed, and continues to fail, to administer the program so as to provide 'timely, accurate and fair service to applicants and participants' as required by federal law," Harpool said in court documents.
Harpool also ordered immediate changes be made in the next 60 days like adding a new menu option for callers to request a paper application instead of asking an operator. Harpool also said applicants who made an effort to apply—such as by calling multiple times, being on hold for a period of time, or having a scheduled appointment—cannot be denied.
The department has six months to show substantial progress or the court will consider more extensive changes.
ABC 17 News reached out to the Department of Social Services for comment, but did not hear back.
