Politics

Call center backlogs deter Missouri families seeking food help

Published

11 months ago

November 3, 2023

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Treasure Dowell has called Missouri’s social services department three times a day for nearly a month and has yet to speak to a human being.Sometimes she is automatically disconnected hours before the call center closes because it has reached capacity for the day. Other times she waits hours, her phone on speaker atop the kitchen counter, playing the hold music and occasional queue updates, while she watches her kids, only for the line to disconnect.When she hears that the queue numbers in the hundreds, she usually hangs up and tries again later.At stake is the $1,339 in monthly food benefits she relies on to help feed her five children — three of whom are special needs and have restricted diets.“I’m scared I’m not going to be able to afford food,” she said.An in-person or phone interview is required to enroll or be re-certified in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps — a federal program administered by the states which provides grocery benefits to low-income people.Dowell has struggled to find child care that would allow her to drive to the nearest resource center, which is more than 20 minutes away and she is hesitant about bringing her kids — four of whom are under the age of five.Without getting through the call center for an interview, Dowell couldn’t be re-certified when her case came up for renewal in September and she lost the benefits she would’ve received in October. She submitted a new application but didn’t get through for an interview in October either.“It’s very upsetting,” she said. “The point is for help to be available.”“I understand waiting a little bit but people who work normal jobs can’t wait on hold for four or five, six hours.”Missouri’s troubled call center became the subject of a federal lawsuit in February 2022. The lawsuit, which is ongoing, alleges that barriers to obtaining a SNAP interview, primarily because of the state’s “dysfunctional” call center, violate federal law and deprive eligible Missourians of benefits.Those barriers — including the system automatically hanging up on people before they get through and long wait times which lead people to abandon the calls — have persisted, data obtained in discovery and published in court filings shows.One of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs suing the state, Katherine Holley, senior attorney at Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, said 20 months into the litigation the state still has “extreme access problems.”“[The Department of Social Services] has been on notice for quite a while that these problems are going on,” Holley said. “And it’s a shame because that means people who are doing everything that they can to get SNAP are not getting them.”

Clara Bates

Missouri IndependentA family enters the Missouri Department of Social Services resource center in Columbia.

‘At the mercy of a broken system’In the federal lawsuit, plaintiffs argue the state is denying benefits to eligible low-income Missourians, along with failing to provide reasonable accommodations to those with disabilities to apply. The lawsuit asks the court to order the social services agency to make procedural changes that would bring the state into compliance with federal law.Plaintiffs describe subsisting on little food while using up prepaid phone minutes waiting on hold for an interview, and, due to disability, struggling to understand the application forms but being unable to get through the call center for help.Those plaintiffs eventually received benefits after the litigation was filed, but they argue they’ll be at the “mercy of [Department of Social Services’] broken, unlawful system” once their yearly renewals come up.Callers to the state’s SNAP interview phone line waited an average of 51 minutes before being connected to a representative, according to the most recent data, from July.And that’s evidence of improvement, the state has argued: The agency has made “significant strides to make interviews more widely available and reduce wait times,” an attorney for the Department of Social Services wrote in an October filing.The average wait time has ranged from around 30 minutes to three hours since January 2022.U.S. District Court Judge M. Douglas Harpool last year called a wait time of 56 minutes “still unacceptably long and particularly burdensome for financially struggling Missouri citizens in need of SNAP benefits.”The wait time provides only part of the story: Many, like Dowell, don’t make it through to a representative at all.

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Treasure DowellTreasure Dowell shops for groceries at a Sam’s Club with three of her children.

Some callers to the state’s SNAP interview line are immediately rejected because the center stops accepting calls when it calculates that, with the wait times and queue, additional calls cannot be answered during the remaining business hours.Dowell said she has experienced that automatic rejection, usually when she calls sometime after noon, around 3 or 4 p.m. — an automated message plays a list of suggestions, including to visit a resource center or the state’s website, then disconnects. (The call center officially closes at 6 p.m.)Fifteen percent of all calls in July were automatically disconnected for that reason, or 64,053 calls, according to data obtained in discovery and laid out in a September filing.Those who do make it through to join the queue often do not have the time to wait.Nearly one-third (32%) of those in the queue in July abandoned their calls before being connected to someone, and they waited an average of 21 minutes.Dowell said she has “sat on hold until they closed” before, waiting over two hours just to be disconnected.Without interviews, SNAP applications and renewals are automatically denied after 30 days — even if applicants have tried and been unable to get through.Around half of all SNAP denials in the state are due to failure to complete an interview, according to data obtained in litigation.The state has previously said wait times are lower when applicants answer the state’s call made from an automated system for an interview. But the state usually only makes one such call.And according to the federal lawsuit, those calls are “inconsistent,” and applicants often miss them because they do not know when to expect them, at which point they must go to an in-person office or use the call center.Using the state’s in-person resource centers, plaintiffs argue, is also not a solution for many of the call center users because many offices already have limited staffing that couldn’t “handle the additional demand of numerous SNAP applicants,” plaintiffs wrote. Some have inconsistent and limited hours: Thirteen resource centers in the state have only one staff member, for instance, according to a late-October filing, limiting hours and availability. And many applicants or participants may lack transportation or be unable to go in-person due to disability, plaintiffs argue.

Annelise Hanshaw

Missouri IndependentChrista Swillum holds a letter from the Missouri Department of Social Services. It has taken her months to receive benefits.

‘Each applicant’s responsibility’Harpool is now considering a motion for summary judgment, meaning discovery is complete and he will decide whether any or all of the issues can be resolved without a trial.A trial is scheduled for early next year.The Department of Social Services did not respond to a request for comment or for call center data since July.In court filings, the state has argued they’ve made substantial efforts to remedy the call center issues, which it says arose from staffing issues during COVID.Those efforts include attempts to hire and train more staff and provide overtime, use outside vendors to handle Medicaid calls so more workers are free for SNAP interviews and create a scheduling system. The state is in the process of creating a virtual interview program but hasn’t provided a timeframe for its completion.The plaintiffs’ lawyers call those efforts “meager,” and say the data shows there are still high rates of rejection born out of failure to complete an interview.The efforts “do not solve the persistent dysfunction in [the state’s] SNAP operations,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote. The agency “has not changed any of the systemic flaws that resulted in Plaintiffs’ inability to complete the eligibility process.”“Ultimately,” the attorney general’s office, which is representing the department, wrote in an October filing, ”it is each applicant’s responsibility to follow program rules for interview completion” — pointing to examples where the plaintiffs disconnected rather than continue to wait on the line.

Provided

Treasure DowellTreasure Dowell with her nine-year-old daughter.

Piecemeal reliefOn Thursday — after trying to secure an interview since September, and ramping up her calls to several times a day the last few weeks — Dowell finally received an interview. She said she was approved for benefits.But it wasn’t because she got through the phone line herself: Holley, one of the attorneys in the federal lawsuit, stepped in to help.Early in federal litigation, the Department of Social Services and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri agreed to set up a system so that Holley could refer clients facing interview hurdles to a quicker path to an interview. Holley said the goal was to ensure the attorneys didn’t have to keep adding plaintiffs to the case.Holley made a referral that allowed Dowell to schedule an interview appointment within days.Dowell has been “very frugal,” she said, limiting her driving and restricting purchases to the necessities, but she is “down pretty close to 80 bucks.”“So it will be a tremendous help to me and the kids,” she said.Two of her kids have been diagnosed with autism and only eat a few foods, like chicken nuggets, crackers and tater tots, “so being able to buy things that fit into their realm of foods that they eat — that there’s no texture aversions to — will be a big relief,” Dowell said, adding that those are “not cheap items.”Without the referral, Dowell said, November would be the third month of “going through this exact same thing.”Community organizations also refer clients to Holley for expedited assistance.But the piecemeal approach is not a systemic solution, said Christine Woody, food security policy manager at Empower Missouri, a nonprofit advocacy organization that’s also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. She has referred several people to Holley in recent months.“It’s great that we have a direct line to someone that can help,” Woody said, “but that’s not changing the process for the thousands of other people.”“That’s not the answer.”This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

1 month ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

Published

1 month ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

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1 month ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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