The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is beginning a three-month process of moving the date when many food stamp recipients will receive their benefits each month. Deputy Assistant Secretary Jean Guinta says instead of all SNAP recipients receiving their benefits in the first two weeks of every month, it will be spread out over the first 23 days.
“Which will give all shoppers including our clients, a better opportunity to get good products, and also for the retailers to have the opportunity to re-stock their grocery shelves,” said Guinta.
So far example, if a food stamp recipient’s social security number ends in a seven, they currently receive their benefits on the 12th of every month. Guinta says starting in February they will get it on the 19th. She says the issuance date will begin to shift this month.
“In the first couple of months, there’s going to be a slight delay for them but once we get to February it’s going to stabilize and everyone’s going to get their benefits consistently on the same day from February on.”
Guinta says that the 446,000 households receiving food stamps have been notified that a change in benefit distribution is coming.
“We’ve been messaging our SNAP households, we’ve been trying to get the word out through our websites as well as through our social media pages, and also with text messages directly to their phones.”
Comments