This message responds to state requests to extend the due dates for SNAP Quality Control cases.
In response to requests from states for flexibility to allow for greater social distancing to prevent the spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19), the Secretary is allowing states to conduct telephone interviews in lieu of face-to face-interviews for SNAP Quality Control purposes.
Our team at USDA has been relentless in notifying, educating, and equipping you to engage more SNAP participants as they transition to work. Some of you have been proactive leaders in improving your E&T program. However, not all states have taken action. Today, I call on you to leverage the opportunity afforded to us by the longest economic expansion in U.S. history to get to work on getting people to work.
Building on best practices to date and consistent with USDA’s efforts to improve customer service and increase state flexibility within the bounds of the law, while continuing to encourage states as laboratories of innovation, FNS is once again expanding allowable activities for states seeking to use vendor/private staff in call centers