[E]fforts to reduce the error rates in Vermont’s food assistance program earned the state a bonus from the federal government, the Department for Children and Families announced Thursday.
Vermont’s branch of the nationwide Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), 3SquaresVT, will receive a bonus of about $293,000 as an award for the successful attempt to bring Vermont back in line with federal requirements.
In recent years, Vermont has ranked among the worst in the country for inaccuracies in the benefit program, formerly called food stamps, which serves some 84,000 Vermonters. The error rate in federal fiscal year 2013 was 9.66 percent — far exceeding the 6 percent threshold set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the national program.
DCF officials announced in May that Vermont was back in line with federal requirements after benefit miscalculations had led to many recipients receiving too much money.
The tide changed in 2014, when the state undertook a rigorous effort to address the underlying problems and brought the error rate down to 2.76 percent. Vermont is now among the most-improved states in the country.
DCF Deputy Commissioner Sean Brown, who heads the economic services division, said that the department has not yet decided what to do with the bonus. The award is “a significant investment” in the program, he said.
“This is a crucial program to combat hunger not only in Vermont but across the nation,” Brown said in a phone interview Thursday.
Brown credits efforts of the 3SquaresVT workforce, including new staff members devoted to managing the eligibility of benefit recipients, as well as new staff-training efforts. Where it previously would take the state several months to discover and correct an error — during which time the error would persist — the program now detects problems within weeks, Brown said.
Vermont only reached a settlement with the federal government in recent months on a penalty that had been imposed for the poor error rates in 2013. The original fine was more than $500,000, with half of that sum going back to the federal government and half going to improving the state’s SNAP process.
On an appeal, Vermont and the federal government reached an agreement that the state will pay a $203,000 penalty, which will go in full to improving 3SquaresVT. Vermont had already resolved penalties for federal fiscal years 2011 and 2012.
Brown said that the state has not yet submitted a reinvestment plan for the penalty, but he expects that the money will go toward continuing the efforts that have proven successful so far to reduce the error rate.
It is not yet clear if Vermont can apply the bonus to pay for the fiscal year 2013 penalty, Brown said.
In a statement released by DCF, Gov. Peter Shumlin said that the bonus acknowledges Vermont’s “strong commitment” to ensuring residents have access to food.
“We will reinvest these funds into initiatives that support program integrity, enhance program access, improve customer service, and continue strengthening our ability to serve Vermonters in need,” Shumlin said.
