Submitted and Denied: Understanding variation in case status across Supplemental Nutrition assistance program (SNAP) applications

Our study investigates the application process for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and barriers to successful SNAP participation among potentially eligible households. We know that only 84 percent of eligible individuals in the United States participated in SNAP prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective is to understand continued barriers to SNAP participation among eligible applicants by analyzing Indiana households that have formally engaged in the SNAP application process. We examine census-tract-level data from Indiana’s administrator of SNAP benefits, Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), in combination with census-tract-level socioeconomic data from 2017 to 2019. We use existing methodologies in micro- and macro-level socioeconomic analysis of SNAP participation to examine not only the terminal participation rate (approved applications) but also the dynamics of the application process that starts with a larger pool of applicants (submitted applications) and may end with a non-participation case status (denied applications). Our linear and quantile regression analyses also seek to understand these socioeconomic factors as predictors of the response distribution of SNAP case status across communities with different rates of application submissions and denials. Our analysis of Indiana SNAP applications supports anecdotal findings that one of the most difficult hurdles in the application process is timely navigation of the paperwork and interview requirements with evidence of increased time in the application process for communities with high SNAP denial rates. We also find that broader socioeconomic trends in a community are associated with application submission rates while applicants’ personal circumstances better predict denial rates.