Federal officials have imposed a $4.6 million fine on Alaska due to the state’s persistently high error rate in the administration of food assistance programs, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
This recent penalty, issued in June 2024, comes on the heels of a nearly $12 million fine from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the previous year, highlighting ongoing issues with the state’s food assistance delivery.
Alaska has shown some progress in this area, reducing its error rate from approximately 60% in 2023 to 24% in 2024. However, despite this improvement, Alaska continues to hold the distinction of having the highest error rate in the nation for the third consecutive year, far exceeding the national average of just under 11%.
In a letter addressed to Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg, Patrick Penn, the deputy undersecretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, stressed the importance of properly administering SNAP to ensure the program’s efficient, effective, and accountable operation.
The Alaska Department of Health is currently conducting an analysis to identify the underlying causes of the high error rate this year. Spokesperson Megan Darrow stated that internal reviews suggest many operational challenges that contributed to the previous year’s error rate also impacted 2024’s performance.
Darrow noted that the state prioritized providing uninterrupted access to benefits for eligible Alaskans, even amid delays in documentation and case actions. While this approach safeguarded access to essential food assistance, it inadvertently raised the likelihood of procedural and administrative errors.
In response to last year’s fine, Alaska lawmakers decided to allocate half of the penalty amount towards improving the state’s SNAP delivery system, while the remaining half of just under $6 million is to be paid directly to the federal government. It has been indicated that the state still owes this fine.
However, the Alaska Department of Law, which announced last month its intentions to appeal the $4.6 million fine, believes there is justification for contesting the new penalty amount. Spokesperson Patty Sullivan argued that the reforms instituted by the state have not been appropriately considered in the USDA’s penalty evaluation.
The state’s legal team contends that while the appeal for the 2024 penalty is underway, Alaska is not obligated to pay the 2023 fine.
In a move aimed at enhancing the SNAP program, the Alaska Division of Public Assistance implemented a new system last month designed to simplify eligibility determinations.
Lawmakers enacted broad-based categorical eligibility for SNAP in the previous year, allowing households earning less than twice the federal poverty level to qualify for food assistance. This change means that some applicants will no longer have to provide detailed documentation and verification of certain assets, streamlining the process significantly.
Darrow explained that these adjustments would reduce pending cases and limit pauses in processing while awaiting additional information, ultimately leading to faster and more efficient eligibility determinations, thus lowering the risk of errors associated with incomplete documentation.
Rep. Genevieve Mina, an Anchorage Democrat, has been advocating for this legislative change since 2023, amid a severe backlog that left numerous Alaskans without the food assistance they relied upon.
However, Mina cautioned that immediate improvements may not be seen due to a lack of public awareness about these changes. She stated, “We’re in a weird spot right now where a lot of people just don’t know that these changes have come into effect, so we’re not going to see these big impacts from the law until there’s greater public awareness.”
While acknowledging that it’s a positive step to have reduced the error rate from 60% to 24%, Mina expressed concern over the continuing high error rate. She pointed out that such discrepancies lead to financial losses for the state as it faces penalties from the federal government.
The Division of Public Assistance has largely attributed its high error rate to the extension of benefits to Alaskans while managing a backlog of food stamp applications. Although there have been improvements in processing times, recent reports indicate that less than half of new SNAP applications are being processed on time.
Mina also highlighted that the prolonged training required for new eligibility technicians could be contributing to the ongoing error rate issues. As of last month, the division had filled 201 eligibility technician positions, a notable increase from 155 in March.
Governor Mike Dunleavy’s administration has invested tens of millions of dollars since 2023 to enhance the state’s SNAP delivery system. This investment follows a period in 2021 when staffing in the Division of Public Assistance was significantly reduced due to decreased federal requirements during the pandemic, which temporarily lowered the division’s workload.
Even with efforts to alleviate the backlog, hundreds of Alaskans continue to face delays of several months for receiving food assistance that, by law, should be available in a matter of weeks. As of last month, around 3,000 Alaskans were still waiting longer than federally mandated timelines to receive their SNAP benefits, a decrease from approximately 4,400 in March.
More than 70,000 Alaskans, roughly one in ten state residents, are reliant on SNAP for their nutritional needs.
The recent federal fine also coincided with Alaska’s congressional delegation voting in favor of a budget reconciliation bill that aims to impose further penalties on states with high SNAP error rates, shifting a greater share of the program’s costs from the federal government to the states.
Alaska’s U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan have attempted to amend this bill to delay the initiation of penalties associated with high error rates, hoping that Alaska will improve its performance before these penalties come into effect in 2028.
Darrow emphasized that the Department of Health is making strategic investments to reduce the error rate and enhance the accuracy of the program.
“While no single change can guarantee a lower error rate in just one year, we are confident that our multi-pronged approach will lead to sustained improvement over time,” she stated.
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