OLYMPIA – A Thurston County judge has ruled that the state Department of Social and Health Services wrongfully reduced food stamps for thousands of elderly or disabled people over a four-month period earlier this year.
The agency must restore $2.7 million in benefits that were withheld from 39,000 people in the Washington State Combined Application Program, Judge Paula Casey ruled Nov. 18.
The program, created in 2001, was designed to make it more convenient for disadvantaged, single, elderly and disabled people living on federal income assistance to apply for food stamps. The application process was streamlined, and recipients weren’t required to reapply as often, making it easier for them to stay in the program.
In 2004, DSHS changed the way benefits were calculated, meaning that on average recipients statewide lost about $17 per month. But in some cases, clients were getting $50 less per month than what was possible in the basic food stamps program.
The agency also kept those who would benefit in the basic program from switching, which they previously had been allowed to do.
DSHS officials argued that they were forced to make the changes to meet a federal deadline to avoid losing funding.
Casey disagreed, writing that “there was nothing in the administrative record for judicial review showing that the department faced a federal deadline for state receipt of federal funds that required immediate adoption of these two emergency rules.”
In February, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Thurston County Superior Court challenging the department’s use of the state’s emergency rule provisions, which allowed the agency to temporarily bypass holding a public hearing. Two women, Dawn DeLong of Pacific County and Martha Chamberlain of King County, were named specifically as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, but it included about 273 Thurston County residents who receive benefits from the program.
Joe Christy, an assistant attorney general who represented DSHS, said the changes were forced because of a disagreement over funding with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers food stamps. The federal government requires that “waiver” programs such as the state program stay “cost-neutral.”
The program was costing an extra $600,000 to $1 million a month.
The emergency rules took effect in January and were in place until April, when DSHS made them permanent after having public hearings. The judge’s decision does not affect people who enrolled in the program after that time.
Attorneys for the agency said they hadn’t decided on whether they would appeal.
If the state doesn’t appeal, those affected will have a 30-day window to apply for Basic Food stamps. Also, those who tried to opt out between January and April will be eligible for the difference in benefits that they would have received.
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