For the past year, Montgomery County and 22 other Ohio counties have been operating under a federal waiver that allowed them to opt out of conducting interviews as part of the recertification process, which occurs roughly 12 months after someone becomes a SNAP recipient.
Like all Ohio counties, other elements of recertification, like identity verification and income eligibility, were still required.
The waiver gave workers at Montgomery County Job and Family Services flexibility as the department transitioned into post-pandemic life and helped workers adjust to its caseload, according to Montgomery County Family Assistance Division Deputy Assistant Director Makell Baccus.
SNAP programming is dependent on national circumstances: global health, the economy and other factors that can drive food insecurity.
“SNAP recipients rely on their benefits as a supplement to their grocery budget,” Baccus said.
This January saw 79,212 SNAP recipients in Montgomery County. This spreads across more than 40,000 households.
This number is lower than the pandemic’s peak number of SNAP recipients in the county: 81,744 program recipients in May 2020.
Recertification interviews are based on the initial SNAP application date. There is nothing SNAP recipients must do.
Baccus said SNAP recipients will be contacted by a Montgomery County Job and Family Services worker when it’s time for their recertification.
“It will be a return to normal operations for us,” she said. “We will just be looking at our internal operations to make sure that we have enough staff dedicated to that particular task once March 1 comes.”
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