ATLANTA — Some beneficiaries of the federally-funded and state-managed Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program told state officials their benefits were not coming through despite their accounts saying “approved.”
SNAP renewals, also known as food stamps, are filed through the Gateway account system from the Georgia Department of Human Services.
According to DHS, some SNAP clients have received approval notices but have not received their benefits.
State officials said it was an issue of the renewal still being in a “processing” phase, rather than the submitted renewal being approved.
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“In these instances, the case status of ‘approved’ means the client’s case remains open because they submitted a renewal that is now waiting to be processed. It does not mean that benefits have been issued,” DHS said in a statement.
In the meantime, the Department said they were working on a way to make the client’s current case status explained in way that is more user-friendly online.
This is not the first SNAP benefits issue to impact the public in recent weeks.
On Oct. 18, DHS announced they’d gotten to replace stolen benefits from the SNAP program, for Georgians whose benefits may have been stolen between Oct. 1, 2022 and Oct. 18, 2023. Any benefits believed to have been stolen after that date must be reported within 30 days.
Separately, state officials told Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray they are considering using an artificial intelligence program to potentially address backlog issues they say are due to a lack of manpower in DHS.
Channel 2 Action News is working to learn more about how many SNAP clients may have received the incorrect approval notice, as well as how many beneficiaries were impacted by stolen benefits.
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