State Tests Simplified Food Stamp Application Form in Onondaga County

August 1, 2002

Author: Cathy Roberts

Onondaga County families can now choose how they want to apply for food stamps.  They can fill out the New York State 16-page joint application form — used as an application form for temporary assistance, medical assistance, food stamps, services, and/or child care assistance — or they can complete a simpler 4-page food stamp-only application.
 
The Onondaga County Department of Social Services (OCDSS) began piloting the simplified FS-only application in July 2002. 
 
The simplified food stamp application is the latest in a series of changes instituted by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) to increase access to the Food Stamp Program.  Previous initiatives included the expansion of the car resource limit, the simplification of reporting requirements for families with earned income, and the offering of transitional food stamp benefits for households leaving TANF.
 
Allowing households to use the simplified application form should make it easier for households to apply for food stamps, since — not surprisingly — lengthy and complicated application forms have been found to deter people from applying for food stamps.  A review of state food stamp applications confirmed that these applications were needlessly long and confusing and contained numerous extraneous questions.  (See The Red Tape Divide:  State-By-State Review of Food Stamp Applications, America’s Second Harvest, 2000.) According to the America’s Second Harvest report, the average state food stamp application takes five hours to complete!
 
USDA, the federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing the Food Stamp Program, has encouraged states to simplify their application process in order to increase program access.  Other states, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, and Texas, have developed a simplified food stamp application form. 
 
OCDSS approached OTDA about developing a simplified application form.  While OCDSS was in the process of drafting the pilot application form under OTDA’s guidance, the New York State Legislature passed legislation (A-10216) directing OTDA to develop a simplified food stamp-only application.  That bill is being forwarded to the Governor’s office.  So the pilot application project could not be more timely.
 
After this “test run” in Onondaga County, OTDA hopes to make the pilot application, or a modified version, as an option for all local districts.  While the pilot application is certainly easier to use than the NYS joint application form, it is still considerably more complicated and less client-friendly than other state simplified applications, especially California’s. Advocacy groups including the Nutrition Consortium of New York State, the Greater Upstate Law Project, Inc., and the Community Food Resource Center have already begun discussions with OTDA on how to improve the State’s pilot application as well as on improvements needed in New York’s statewide joint application.

Cathy Roberts is a Food Stamp Specialist with the Nutrition Consortium of NYS, a statewide, private non-profit organization dedicated to addressing problems of hunger.

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