'Approved' GA SNAP Renewals Cause Confusion For Clients: DHS

GEORGIA — State officials said Tuesday that "approved" food stamp renewal applications do not mean people's benefits have been fully processed.

According to the Georgia Department of Human Services, some clients have approved applications for the renewals of their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, commonly referred to as food stamps, but they do not have issuance dates in the Georgia Gateway system.

Georgia Gateway is a state system that allows residents to apply for benefits and view their case statuses.

Some clients may see an issuance date that shows the last month they received SNAP benefits, according to human services.

The state department said this means a person's case status can be marked "approved," but the client's case remains open due to a submitted renewal that is waiting to be processed.

"It does not mean that benefits have been issued. DHS is actively working to identify a more user-friendly interface to explain a client’s current case status. DHS will share updates as we work to identify a system reporting fix through our social media channels," the department said in a news release.

Georgia SNAP is federally-funded and helps low-income households with purchasing food, according to human services. Households could be a single person living alone, a family or multiple people living together who are unrelated but regularly buying their meals together.

Patch is awaiting a reply from the Department of Human Services for more information.