Feds find Pa. is glacially slow in approving food stamps, unemployment compensation & federal heat $

[JPZenger]

Anyone notice a little bit of a pattern here? It is part of the Republican War on the Poor.

http://articles.philly.com/2013-06-27/news/40208514_1_snap-benefits-food-stamps-snap-recipients

Excerpts:

"Already under scrutiny for taking too long to process unemployment checks and home-energy assistance claims, Pennsylvania is also too slow in approving food-stamp (SNAP) applications, compelling the federal government to order the state to improve its performance. Pennsylvania ranks among the worst in the nation for getting food stamps to the needy within 30 days, as required by federal law, according to an Inquirer examination of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the food-stamp program.

... the U.S. Department of Labor chastised the state for "continued failure" to follow federal regulations that require states to pay first-time unemployment benefits in a timely fashion. And since January, the DPW has been slow to process thousands of claims by needy families for federal home-energy assistance funds.

Timeliness delivering SNAP benefits would improve if the DPW put on more workers to handle the increasing volume of needy people, said Julie Zaebst, interim director of the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. "It's creating chaos at welfare offices where people apply for SNAP benefits, leading to people not getting benefits on time," Zaebst said. Between 2002 and 2011, staffing decreased 14 percent in county assistance offices, Zaebst said. At the same time, SNAP applications doubled."

[ebbie15644]

1. it's any services in PA! I worked for an state agency helping people with disabilities

and during the 8 1/2 years I was with them, they purposely made it more and more hard to gain access to needed services.