Why is SNAP failing Hawaiʻi residents?

It shouldn’t be an obstacle course to apply for SNAP—a program that exists to help struggling families put food on the table. Every day, families, kūpuna, and people with disabilities rely on this essential federal program for their everyday meals. But Hawaiʻi’s program has been challenged by backlogs, long waits, and errors. Program staff are overwhelmed, under-resourced, and underpaid.

The state Department of Human Services (DHS) is making strides to fix the current backlog, but an outdated eligibility system and recent system outages have put them behind on SNAP applications. Persistent staffing issues mean workers are spread extremely thin. On any given day, only three-fourths of eligibility workers are actually in the office, which makes it difficult to perform the work that only “merit staff” (authorized state eligibility workers) can complete. 

Some of these issues are driven by an inherent tension between accuracy and efficiency. Last year, Hawaiʻi was issued an $11 million fine by the federal government as a consequence for an above-average payment error rate. This penalty fee has placed pressure on the state office to improve payment accuracy and lower their error rate to below the national average of 11.68 percent. Alongside this penalty comes an opportunity to reinvest half of the amount of the fine as an emergency appropriation, which would be used to develop the new eligibility system. 

In the past year, DHS has worked to lower their payment error rate to 8.23 percent—below the national average. However, this has come at a cost to efficiency, with eligibility workers having to do additional verification, and applicants having to go through lengthy interviews to ensure no mistakes are made.

Federal Uncertainty

It remains to be seen how the Trump Administration’s policies will impact essential safety net programs that currently rely on federal funding. Congress has proposed $230 billion in cuts to SNAP, which could result in some 160,000 Hawaiʻi SNAP users seeing yet another decrease in benefits. 

These changes could leave our state with the difficult decision to either slash benefits to low-income households or pay a portion of SNAP benefits—something that has never been done before. With threats to longstanding federal programs like SNAP, our state office needs support now more than ever.

A few promising solutions have been proposed, and are in various stages of implementation. These include a long-awaited update to the state’s 40-year-old eligibility system, a proposed incentive-based salary increase for eligibility workers, and funds to contract clerical staff. With proper investment, DHS could see an improvement in efficiency, ideally reducing long processing times that leave applicants in limbo between applying and receiving benefits. 

There are currently two pieces of legislation moving through the Hawaiʻi legislature that would improve SNAP access. Senate Bill (SB) 960 and SB961 aim to expand SNAP accessibility and provide support for DHS to meet that expanded need. By providing funds to specifically increase worker pay and create new positions, SB960 is a potential bright spot to offer funds in the face of federal threats to funding. Opening up additional positions in areas with significant vacancies and extending recertification periods for users, as proposed by SB961, would significantly reduce barriers to recertification, and create a system that works more efficiently for both users and DHS staff.

To help fund these initiatives, lawmakers should consider several strategies to raise revenue from the wealthy and corporations, such as closing the capital gains loophole. Taxing capital gains at the same marginal rates as regular income from work would raise $79 million in revenue that could be used to help plug budget gaps in the absence of withdrawn federal funds, according to analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). This would be enough to cover proposed worker incentives, contract clerical workers, or even 10 percent of benefits costs should Congress place that mandate upon states.

Hawaiʻi can prepare for changes to the way SNAP is structured at the federal level through shifts in policy and strategic changes in how resources are allocated. It’s time to invest in a more resilient, independent social safety net system that can keep working families going regardless of chaos at the federal level.