As the old adage goes, “What gets measured gets managed.”
For those working in civic technology, the 2024 Farm Bill framework that Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow unveiled in May is fuel for excitement. From strengthening the security of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Electronic Benefits Transfer (SNAP EBT) transactions to expanding rural broadband access, many of the proposals in Chairwoman Stabenow’s framework have the potential to uplift communities across the country. But there’s one provision in particular that has the power to fundamentally transform the way state agencies administer America’s most impactful food assistance benefits: the SNAP customer service metric.
What is the SNAP Customer Service Metric?
SNAP already has a robust quality control system that assesses how accurately states determine which families are eligible for the program and how much in food assistance each eligible family can receive. These quality control measures, which include financial penalties for underperforming states, have significant influence on how states administer SNAP. They also offer a very limited window into the experiences of people applying for benefits or trying to keep their cases open so that they can continue to feed themselves and their families. As a result, the federal government, advocates, and state agencies themselves are too often in the dark about how effectively states serve people participating in SNAP. In fact, without clearly mandated standards, even highly motivated, customer service-oriented SNAP administrators may not be able to access the information they need from their state computer systems to identify where their clients are falling through the cracks.
Chairwoman Stabenow’s Farm Bill framework proposes two key changes that would help shine a bright light on how effective state programs are at getting SNAP benefits to eligible people: new monthly reports on components of application processing and a federal customer service measure that would allow for comparisons between states. Under the proposal, the systems enhancements states would need to generate these monthly reports would be nearly entirely federally funded. This federal funding is a critical commitment to ensuring that taxpayer money supports excellent service for people seeking their government’s help to keep food on the table.
Why is Having a Customer Service Metric Important?
Assessing how well safety net programs deliver benefits and services to people seeking help is essential for improving benefits administration. In other words, establishing a clear and shared set of customer service standards can help states chart their progress and, when necessary, take action to improve performance, and can help the federal government ensure that federal dollars support effective program delivery that cuts through red tape to get people help when they need it.
This fundamental idea is at the heart of Code for America’s Safety Net Scorecard, a set of metrics aimed at measuring safety net delivery and progress. In rolling out the scorecard in 2021, Code for America called on federal agencies like the USDA to collect comparison data to track changes and trends across the nation over time. It is encouraging to see this recommendation incorporated into Farm BIll negotiations. As the Farm Bill process moves forward, Congress should prioritize good customer service and human-centered delivery by including the customer service metric in the bill’s final version, along with funding to ensure that states can quickly implement needed changes to their systems.
Reliable, high-quality data is critical for a resilient, human-centered safety net. This proposal is an important step forward.
Danny Mintz (he/him) is the Associate Director of Safety Net Policy, where he works to improve access to public benefits. Prior to joining Code for America Danny worked as Director of Safety Net Policy at the Louisiana Budget Project, where he worked to secure better access and more adequate benefits for SNAP, TANF, WIC, and Medicaid recipients in Louisiana. Previously, Danny Directed the interdisciplinary Food Studies Program and served as an instructor of English at Loyola University New Orleans. Danny holds a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in English from Carleton College (Northfield, MN).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.