When natural disasters strike, recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) may lose food due to power outages, flooding, or other damage. In certain situations, and with federal approval, states can allow recipients to apply for replacement benefits. This provision can allow individuals to recover the value of food lost, damaged, or destroyed during the disaster.
Challenge
Extreme weather events are a persistent reality for many regions across Texas. Hurricanes, floods, ice storms, tornadoes, and more have devastated communities and disrupted access to essential services. For residents who rely on SNAP, disasters often mean the loss of food purchased with their benefits. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) needed a rapid and understanding response to help eligible residents request and receive replacement benefits — ensuring food security during times of crisis.
Solution
Maximus has provided integrated eligibility support services to HHSC since 2007, operating a centralized, flexible contact center model that enables rapid scaling in response to emergencies.
Over nearly 20 years, Maximus has evolved and modernized our support for SNAP replacement requests. We’ve refined our approaches to offer a more streamlined approach and improved our ability to ramp up replacement benefit support within days.
While our agents continue to receive applications over the phone — digitally transmitting them to our operations team, which creates associated disaster tasks for HHSC staff to work electronically — we’ve expanded our support to include mailed applications. And most recently, as we gained even more insight into opportunities for additional efficiencies, we’ve proposed and implemented a self-service option for recipients who prefer digital engagement.
