NYS project to streamline child support, food stamp applications to lose federal support

The Trump administration is ending support for a New York State project, unfinished after nine years in development, that was intended to streamline applications for programs such as child support services and food stamps.

In a statement, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy said his department would "no longer fund overpriced, slow-moving projects that deliver nothing for the American people."

Instead, Kennedy said, the HHS would focus on unspecified "cost-effective, efficient, life-saving solutions to Make America Healthy Again."

The HHS denied New York’s recent request for $30.2 million for its Integrated Eligibility System, after providing $121 million since 2021, according to the Friday statement.

'Minimal progress'

A Tuesday letter from an HHS agency, the Administration for Children and Families, to Barbara Guinn, commissioner of the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, said New York had made "minimal progress" since work on the project started in 2016. From 2018 to 2021, according to the letter, the state built a system for clients to upload documents required to use some assistance programs, as well as a way to record hearings. But still unfinished, the letter continued, were five key elements of the project including shared services, fair hearings, eligibility enrollment case management, financial management and child support.

Guinn’s office has oversight of many state assistance programs, though county-based social services departments administer them. The programs are among the largest in the nation, partly because of New York City. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, alone goes to nearly 3 million state residents each month.

Jennifer Wagner, director of Medicaid eligibility and enrollment at the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, said that while many states modernized their assistance systems around the time the federal Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2014, New York was one of about a dozen that has not, still using a legacy computer language, COBOL, developed in the 1960s. 

Wagner said modernization is difficult and expensive for reasons including the volume of data, the complexity of eligibility requirements and the need to retrain workers who have become experts at the legacy system. New York’s costs did not appear to be out of line with other states, she added, though "the way they were publicly called out was not something we have seen."

A critical project

In a statement Tuesday, Anthony Farmer, a spokesperson for the state assistance office, said Integrated Eligibility was a "critical project" to create a "simplified, easy-to-use tool through which New Yorkers can apply for a range of federal and state government programs and services across agencies." Modernizing and streamlining public benefit systems, he added "is a huge undertaking, and it remains a priority."

Farmer, who did not provide staff for an interview, said the state had made significant progress, citing the NYDocSubmit app, which he said launched in 2018, and other elements related to child support and fair hearings he said were set to go live later this year.

The app, which allows clients to submit required documents for SNAP, HEAP, Temporary Assistance and Medicaid without going to their county social service department, has been downloaded more than 715,000 times, Farmer said.

The app has garnered mixed but mostly positive reviews on Google Play and the Apple App Store. It supports applications for dozens of counties, including Suffolk.

Fair hearings let clients appeal the decision of a local service agency before an administrative judge.

The HHS letter cited "poor communication from state leadership" about matters including termination of a technology services contract with Deloitte, the auditing consulting giant that has done similar work for many other states. The letter identified other problems with the state program, including a "lack of clarity" on project budgeting, absence of a "detailed plan or schedule with clear milestones" through 2028, when, according to the HHS, the project was set to go live, and uncertainty over requirements — an "ongoing impediment" to success.

Deloitte, the state’s Office of Information Technology Services and the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment. Spokespersons for Nassau and Suffolk also did not respond to interview requests for their social services departments. The HHS's Administration for Children and Families did not respond to a request for comment.

Joel Berg, CEO of Manhattan nonprofit Hunger Free America, which works to ensure Americans have sufficient access to nutritious food, said his organization had advocated for years that New York modernize its assistance programs. But, he said, "taking away money isn’t going to make it happen more quickly … Efficiency isn’t just cutting, it’s making things work better."