LINCOLN — State officials announced Friday they have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit filed over delays in providing food assistance to Nebraska families.
The agreement resolves a lawsuit filed in 2014 by Tami Leiting-Hall, a single mother from Lincoln, and others like her.
The Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest filed the suit in U.S. District Court. A court hearing on the settlement is set for April 1.
In a joint press release, Appleseed and state officials said the agreement resulted from improvements made in AccessNebraska, the problem-plagued state system for processing public benefits applications, and a commitment by the state to continue making progress on the system.
“We are happy with this outcome for our clients and the class,” said Nebraska Appleseed staff attorney Molly McCleery. “We will continue to work to ensure the public benefits system functions effectively in the future for working Nebraska families.”
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Courtney Phillips, CEO of the State Department of Health and Human Services, called the settlement agreement “good news for Nebraska.”
“We’ve made significant progress during the past year resulting in significantly improved service to our clients and improved federal rankings,” she said.
The agreement represents another sign of progress for AccessNebraska.
The system processes applications for Medicaid, food assistance and other public benefits programs through four call centers. It also includes online benefits applications and electronic scanning and storage of documents filed with an application.
AccessNebraska has been plagued by long wait times, lost documents and delays in needed benefits since its inception. But recent signs suggest the state is overcoming those problems.
In January, a special legislative investigation committee reported significant improvements in the system. A year earlier, the committee had termed the system “largely a failure.”
Also in January, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said the state had met the first set of improvement benchmarks necessary to keep its federal funding.
Officials set the benchmarks last year, after warning the state it had to do better at meeting deadlines for processing supplemental nutrition assistance program, or SNAP, applications or risk losing $17 million in federal funds. SNAP benefits commonly are called food stamps.
The state was required to process 85 percent of applications on time from April through September last year to meet the benchmark. The state processed more than 91 percent of applications on time during that period.
Federal regulations say SNAP applications must be processed within 30 days in most cases or seven days in expedited cases.
Under the settlement agreement, HHS must process at least 96 percent of SNAP applications on time. The agency is to remain under court jurisdiction until it maintains compliance with that standard for 25 out of 28 months.
According to the lawsuit, Leiting-Hall applied June 16, 2014, to renew food stamp benefits for herself and her then-10-year-old son.
The suit alleged that, on July 14, a state worker told Leiting-Hall her case was still pending and advised her to use local soup kitchens and food banks until her application went through.
She had not received her benefits as of July 31, 2014. The suit was filed on Aug. 6 of that year.
Contact the writer: 402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
