Family and community advocacy groups Tuesday told members of the Public Benefits Assistance Accountability Task Force that accessing benefits systems in Ohio is time consuming and confusing for many people and ultimately prevents them from accessing benefits they may be entitled to.

The task force, which has been meeting for nearly a year, was created in 134-HB110 (Oelslager) to study various fraud prevention topics related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid, Ohio Works First (OWF) and publicly funded child care, including the possibility of adding photos to SNAP cards.

Hope Lane-Gavin, the director of nutrition policy and programs for the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, told members that SNAP “is the first and most critical line of defense against hunger” and provides nearly 1.5 million children, parents, workers, older adults and disabled Ohioans with help to buy groceries.

The presentations and testimony seen throughout the task force’s hearing have shown, she said, that Ohio’s public benefits systems “are far more complex and cumbersome” for Ohioans and county workers than they should be, adding that “red tape and bureaucracy” prevent people from accessing their benefits and prevent county workers from their job in an “efficient and compliant” manner.

Limited in-person office access, long call center wait times and a failure to provide translation services are all major barriers that have prevented people from even filing applications for benefits, she said.

Lane-Gavin also highlighted a lawsuit against the Alaska Department of Health in which advocates and beneficiaries allege a failure to provide SNAP benefits to vulnerable communities.

Responding to questions, Lane-Gavin and Joel Potts, executive director of the Ohio Job and Family Services Directors' Association, who sits on the task force, said work requirements for SNAP did not go away during the pandemic, though certain flexibilities were added to the program.

Joshua Goodwin, managing attorney for the public benefits team at the Legal Aid Society of Columbus, made similar points as Lane-Gavin, emphasizing that most people on public benefits do not want to be and would rather be working, but it is a last resort for them.

“For the vast majority of my clients, they do not like the idea of being on public benefits. They are appreciative the benefits exist, but they do not want to have to rely on public benefits. I can't tell you the number of folks with severe disabilities who have told me how much they wish they could work and not have to rely on SNAP and Medicaid and OWF,” he said.

Goodwin said the number of people trying to “take advantage” of public benefits is “few and far between,” but that the process for accessing benefits is so confusing it prevents people from even applying for benefits they are eligible for and that even he, a lawyer, had trouble understanding applications.

“I have had a number of clients who failed to take all the steps necessary to maintain their benefits. This is almost always due to a misunderstanding about what they were supposed to do or turn in or report. That's not surprising. I remember when I first started with Legal Aid and saw some of the notices my clients would receive and ask me about. I had a law degree, but I couldn't figure out from their notices what had happened on their cases or why. Even after 15 years of looking at things like this, I was recently reviewing a Medicaid renewal packet and found myself unsure how to respond to some of the questions. ln trying to advise clients about how the SNAP and Medicaid programs work, I regularly wade through the various provisions of not only the Ohio Administrative Code but federal regulations,” he said.

Goodwin said it can take hours and even days waiting on a phone to connect with a case worker, and he noted many of his clients are not “technology literate” and need a place where they can meet face-to-face with a person to resolve issues.

Greg Lawson of the Buckeye Institute noted Medicaid payments to ineligible Ohioans during the pandemic and slow application processing times. He said holding service vendors accountable is a way to improve program quality and save taxpayers money. Lawson also advocated for work requirements for government assistance.

Task force Co-Chair Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster) asked Lawson if the “benefits cliff” -- the sudden or unexpected decrease in public benefits like SNAP that can occur with a small increase in income – was a major issue or not. He responded it is a burden for families and that it can disincentivize people from taking raises if the extra money is not worth more than the benefit they are receiving.

Kelsey Bergfeld, director of Advocates for Ohio’s Future, also discussed the benefits cliff, saying it “often results in people and families cycling on and off public programs and in the long term, generational poverty.”

“Small increases in wages, sometimes as little as one dollar per hour, can mean the loss of both nutrition support and Medicaid access. It is also important to note that a single parent with two children working full time at minimum wage qualifies for all public programs with the exception of Ohio Works First,” she said.

Bergfeld added, “this task force heard from a number of counties currently implementing Benefit Bridge pilot programs across the state. We hope these efforts produce evidence-based strategies and wraparound work supports that help people and families on their path to supporting themselves and out of the cycle of poverty. We encourage the elected members of this body to invest in the statewide implementation of these strategies and in accessible work and emergency supports like those supported by the Prevention, Retention and Contingency (PRC) program to create a truly transformational bridge to able to support themselves and their family.”

The task force also heard from Tara Britton and Rachel Cahill of the Center for Community Solutions. They reviewed issues that have been raised in previous meetings, for instance the suggestion that SNAP benefits should be contingent on parent participation in Ohio’s child support program.

They said Ohio ranks fourth in the nation for child support cooperation, and added that “when custodial or non-custodial parents have SNAP benefits sanctioned due to non-cooperation with child support, food is removed from a very low-income household. Decades of research tell us that this leads to food rationing among family members and increased child hunger.”

They also discussed needed improvements to technology and systems that manage public benefits. For example, they said, “millions of duplicative and outdated alerts are bogging down the Ohio Benefits Worker Portal. Legislators should not invest in additional data matching proposed by third-party vendors until the existing technology is vastly improved.”