Wrong addresses likely to blame for 124,000 Louisiana kids missing pandemic food aid
8th April 2024 · 0 Comments
By Greg LaRose
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — Families of 124,000 Louisiana children will miss out on more than $16 million in federal pandemic food assistance for what amounts to clerical errors.
The same problem has occurred in other states, where officials have taken steps to connect recipients with their benefits. But in Louisiana, the time has apparently lapsed to help families in need.
The money in question is part of a $120.5 million disbursement in pandemic aid, known as P-EBT, for the state that was doled out last year from May through September by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Families with children who qualified for subsidized school lunches in the 2021-22 school year were eligible for the P-EBT distributed last year.
If families were already receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the extra aid was added to their debit cards. Families without cards were mailed new ones. Recipients were given 274 days, or roughly nine months, to spend the money or it will be removed from their cards.
The families of 124,162 children in Louisiana never activated their cards as of March 22, according to records from the Louisiana Department of Children and Families Services (DCFS). If they remain unactivated, the federal government will pull back $16.1 million as the 274-day “expungement period” for the last of the recipients expires this month.
David Kubel, an education consultant and parent in New York, started looking into the P-EBT money being left on the table after learning his own family was eligible for the assistance months after the P-EBT cards had been mailed out.
“I said to myself, ‘If I didn’t know about this – and this is what I do for a living – how many millions more families didn’t know?’” Kubel said in an interview.
What started out as research for one of his clients turned into a pro bono passion project for Kubel. It led him to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with more than two dozen states to determine how much aid remains unclaimed. He shared records obtained from Louisiana with the Illuminator.
He determined the main reason P-EBT money isn’t being spent is that new debit cards were likely mailed to the wrong address. School districts are the primary source for address information on students eligible for federal food aid, and it’s not clear schools did much more than send out flyers when the P-EBT assistance was first made available, Kubel said.
Heidi Rogers Kinchen, a Louisiana DCFS spokesperson, said via email Monday that the department posted information Jan. 10 on its Facebook page and website about the end of March deadline, how to file for a replacement card and the 274-day expungement period. It’s the only such post on its Facebook feed since then.
Even if families requested and received a replacement P-EBT card, they might not have much time to spend the money on it. Individual states have to request an extension of the expungement period, or the card lapses based on its original issuance date with the wrong address.
Kinchen said the 274-day rule is “a federal rule that (DCFS) does not have the authority to waive,” but a USDA spokesperson said states can request an amendment to their P-EBT plan from the agency.
This marks the second significant installment of federal food assistance Louisiana has left on the shelf in recent weeks. Louisiana is among 14 states that declined to accept the permanent version of P-EBT that’s being launched this summer, rejecting $71 million in food assistance that would have reached 594,000 families.
DCFS Secretary David Matlock has attributed the state’s decision to turn down the summer assistance to the $3.6 million cost of administering the program, more pressing child abuse investigation needs and the success of an existing “grab-and-go” summer meals program.
Critics have questioned the spending choices of Gov. Jeff Landry that could have covered the cost of operating the summer food assistance program, specifically the $3 million price tag for sending Louisiana National Guard troops to Texas to assist with border security.
“The FOIA data clearly shows that struggling Louisiana families rely on these federal supplemental dollars to feed their children during the summer months,” Kubel said. “Since Summer EBT (benefits) are federal dollars, it makes absolutely no sense for Governor Landry to deny Louisiana families this much needed help for getting through the summer months.”
State Education Superintendent Cade Brumley originally turned down the Summer EBT program in December, saying it would be unfair to shoulder the incoming Landry administration, which took office Jan. 8, with a program it didn’t get the chance to approve.
With nearly 13 percent of Louisiana’s P-EBT left unclaimed, Kubel said the use of 87 percent of the money shows there would be high demand for the permanent summer program.
Kubel’s research on different states has revealed enormous amounts of unclaimed money.
In New York City, families missed out on $222 million disbursed for the summer of 2021.
More than 90,000 children in Missouri have failed to access $36.7 million from last year. The Independent reported 25,000 EBT cards were returned in 2023 because the state or school districts didn’t have accurate addresses.
Based on Kubel’s running total, nearly $1 billion in P-EBT assistance remains unclaimed – and he said he’s still waiting on public records from more states that will likely add to that sum.
This article originally published in the April 8, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
