Both North Dakota and Minnesota are being criticized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for their poor performance in providing SNAP benefits. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has sent letters to the governors highlighting their concerns and urging the states to take immediate steps to improve.
Secretary Vilsack also sent similar letters to 45 other governors, including the governors of DC, Guam and the Virgin Islands, asking them to prioritize meeting the needs of low-income families. Stressing the need for these benefits to be accessible without unnecessary delay.
USDA is committed to playing a proactive role to help improve state operations, including direct interaction with on-site visits and virtual trainings. States that fail to meet certain benchmarks will also be required to implement corrective action plans.
The key performance indicators USDA uses for SNAP implementation are application processing timelines (APT), payment error rate (PER), and case and procedure error rate (CAPER). USDA says an acceptable APT is above 95%, PER must be below 6%, and the national average CAPER is 44.12%. That is, in approximately 44% of the cases in which SNAP benefits were denied, terminated or suspended, the decision was inaccurate, the notice was inaccurate or the notice provided was not timely and/or the procedures followed in connection with these decisions were inaccurate.
The most recent data for North Dakota show an APT rate of 55.68%, a PER of 9.51%, and a CAPER of 34.1%. In Minnesota, the APT rate is 89.18 %, the PER is 8.24 % and the CAPER is 31.79 %.
North Dakota Health and Human Services Commissioner Wayne Salter responded to the secretary with his own letter, saying, in part, "We are dedicated to implementing effective solutions that address the root causes of our challenges and improve the overall performance of our solution. program."
Both North Dakota and Minnesota have relatively low rates of supplement use, with participation at 5.8% of North Dakota residents and 8% of Minnesota residents. The national average is about 12%.