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Short
Recertification Periods in the U.S. Food Stamp Program
Parke E.
Wilde
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts
April 14, 2004
A major
preoccupation of recent food stamp policy research has been to explain
the large caseload fluctuations during the 1990s. Average monthly
participation in the U.S. Food Stamp Program grew from 20.4 million
persons in fiscal year 1990 to 27.9 million persons in fiscal year 1994,
and then experienced an unprecedented 39 percent decline over the next
six years, reaching 17.1 million persons in fiscal year 2000. During the
period of caseload decline, the fraction of eligible people who
participated in the program also declined, from 74.8 percent in 1994 to
59.3 percent in 2000.
In seeking
an explanation for this caseload decline, researchers have turned to the
arcane world of food stamp recertification policies. The Federal
government requires States to recertify most participants in the Food
Stamp Program at least once a year. In recent years, many States have
dramatically increased their use of short recertification periods (3
months or less) in an effort to lower their food stamp error rates. This
trend has been especially pronounced for working households. This study
investigates the impact of recertification regimes on error rates and
program participation rates, for households with and without earnings.
Based on these estimates, it quantifies the tradeoff that States faced
during the 1990s between maintaining low error rates and encouraging
program participation.
During the
study period, greater use of short recertification periods was
associated with lower Food Stamp Program participation rates. Shorter
certification periods could reduce participation in at least two ways:
by removing households who became ineligible from the caseload, and by
imposing administrative burdens that would discourage participation even
by eligible households. A 10 percentage point increase in the frequency
of short recertification periods for both working and nonworking
households appeared to lower the number of food stamp participants as a
fraction of the State population by around 2.7 percent.
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