Thursday, 4:30 PM
State food stamp program gets bonus
By Stephanie M. Peters, Globe correspondent
The Massachusetts Food Stamp Program was awarded a $1.1 million bonus today by the US Department of Agriculture for being the nation's best processing applications on time.
It is the third consecutive year the state has received a bonus award in this category. In June Massachusetts also received a bonus award of nearly $3.5 million.
For the past several years, Massachusetts achieved 98 percent timeliness in approving and delivering food stamp benefits. For fiscal year 2005, the state achieved a record high of 99.50 percent in timeliness, 10 percent above the national average. A timely application is one that provides benefits within 30 days, or seven days when eligible for expedited issuance.
Over the last four years, the number of Massachusetts residents receiving food stamps has increased by 82 percent to more than 437,000 individuals, more than half of whom are children and many elderly and disabled. About $35 million in food stamps is being distributed monthly.
