Food Stamps Fail to Reach Many in Need
About 63 percent of Americans who are eligible for food stamps actually get them. And California ranks last in participation rates, with only 40 percent of needy people enrolled in the program. Critics say bureaucratic inefficiencies and a fingerprinting requirement act as discouragements.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
The federal food stamp program is designed to help poor people get enough to eat. But around the country, millions are not receiving benefits even though they're eligible. California has the largest number of these potential food stamp recipients. And as NPR's Elaine Korry reports, a state lawmaker has legislation in the works to improve enrollment in the program.
ELAINE KORRY reporting:
Access to food stamps varies greatly from state to state even though the eligibility requirements are the same everywhere. According to US government data, Missouri and Oklahoma have enrolled more than 95 percent of their eligible residents. The national average is about 60 percent. But in California, only about four in 10 needy people get food stamps. Why so few? The biggest obstacle may be in the application process.
(Soundbite of service center)
Unidentified Computer Voice: Now serving 507 at counter number five.
KORRY: Residents of Hayward, east of San Francisco, report to this service center to apply for food stamps. After filling out paperwork, they're interviewed by a case worker. Then comes a final step...
Ms. ANGIE SWAIN(ph) (Employee): Place your left index finger up to the red light, please. OK. Now your right index finger, place it to the red light, please.
KORRY: Employee Angie Swain scans an applicant's fingerprints into a computer database. There are only four states that still require food stamp applicants to be fingerprinted--New York, Texas, Arizona and California. Chet Hewitt, director of the Alameda County Social Services Agency, says people don't apply for food stamps for any number of reasons, including language and cultural barriers. But he says the fingerprint requirement is probably the top culprit.
Mr. CHET HEWITT (Alameda County Social Services): It's an impediment to folks who would normally show up and perhaps apply for that particular benefit. It's been borne out that that does have a chilling effect on folks' participation, even for the very elderly.
KORRY: Hewitt says being fingerprinted is an indignity that makes some people feel like criminals, especially California's many immigrants. Judy Chu, a Democratic state Assembly member, says it's also a burden to working people since every member of the family must show up to be scanned.
Assemblywoman JUDY CHU (Democrat, California): That includes your grandmother, your little child. You can imagine that you have to go gather them up and go down to the office. It takes an average of three trips and five hours just to get qualified for food stamps.
KORRY: For several years, Chu has sponsored a bill to simplify the process, chiefly by ending the fingerprint requirement. Prosecutors objected, citing concerns over fraud. But that was when food stamps were in the form of paper coupons, which could be sold illegally. States have since migrated to electronic benefit cards, which are swiped at the cashier. And that has changed attitudes about fingerprints. Jim Provenza is legislative counsel for the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office.
Mr. JIM PROVENZA (Legislative Counsel, Los Angeles District Attorney's Office): With the new cash card, you cannot readily convert the food stamp benefit into cash, and therefore, it's much less susceptible to fraud and an area where we think that we could back away from the use of fingerprint imaging without any significant increase in fraud.
KORRY: With prosecutors now on board, Assembly member Chu hopes her bill will pass this year. It would also streamline reporting requirements for people using food stamps, another barrier to getting eligible residents enrolled. Elaine Korry, NPR News.
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