DENVER—Colorado’s neediest face long delays for food stamps and medical care, years after the state vowed to fix a computer system blamed for the problems.
A group of lawyers who advocate for people on food stamps and Medicaid are planning to meet with state officials Wednesday to demand the problem be fixed.
A 2007 legal settlement requires Colorado to process food-stamp and Medicaid applications within 45 days. But advocates for the poor say state data shows some applications are still delayed.
About 19 percent of new food-stamp applications were delayed in October, The Denver Post reported Monday. About 18 percent of new Medicaid applicants saw delays.
For Joanne Southard in Adams County, the delay has meant empty cupboards. She sent in paperwork to reauthorize food stamp benefits for herself, plus a son and grandson, in November. But she hasn’t seen any new money on her food-stamp debit card.
“I call them, and they tell me they have all my paperwork in order, and there are 57 cases and I’m one of them,” Southard told the Post.
State officials told the newspaper that the pricey Colorado Benefits Management System installed in 2004 is still giving the state trouble. They’ve also blamed a surge in new applications for state assistance because of the bad economy.
“We have a huge increase in people,” said Kirby Stone, a division director at the Adams County Department of Human Services. In that county, the food-stamp grew from 9,800 in January to 15,600 in December.
Before the economic downturn, the state had showed some improvement in processing applications. In the fiscal year ending in September of 2005, only 63 percent of new applications were timely.
Ed Kahn, a lawyer with the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, said the improvement isn’t enough.
Kahn was among the lawyers who sued the state over its Colorado Benefits Management System in 2004. He said the changes since have been like “going from an F to an F plus.”
“It’s not really satisfactory,” he told the Post.
For fiscal year 2008, the most recent with available data, Colorado ranked 52nd in the country (behind Guam) in getting food stamps out on time.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
