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The Connecticut state Department of Social Services announced on Thursday that it will extend medical and food benefits for around 15,000 poor households that are at risk of losing them as of Sept 1. The change is intended to prevent these people from losing Medicaid or food stamp benefits as the department deals with some of the problems related to a major change in the handling of applications and renewal forms. It would affect people whose deadlines for renewing benefits is September 1. Some of these individuals already received notices this month warning that they may lose their benefits.

The issues are due to a change in how DSS handles the documents based on part of a new modernization effort. Forms and other documents that are sent to DSS are now sent to a state contractor which scans them into the department’s computer system instead. The contractor was supposed to get the documents into the DSS computer system within 24 hours, however, the volume of paperwork eventually caused a backlog in scanning. This is what delayed the DSS workers’ ability to be able to access the documents and ultimately may cause some individuals to lose their benefits.

However, benefits will now be extended by at least one month. This is temporary, so people would still need to submit their forms for renewal during the period. The change is aimed at making certain that people won’t lose benefits because their forms have gotten stuck in the backlog or haven’t been scanned into the system at all year. The “protective extension of benefits” that was announced on Thursday affects around 2500 households covered by the HUSKY program. This includes Medicaid and 13,000 households in the food stamp program.

Essentially, those 15,000 DSS client households that were receiving the notices suggesting that their service and benefits would be discontinued will not have to worry about this issue. They will not lose Medicaid or SNAP benefits during September as the notices had indicated, although they will still be responsible for handling their renewal forms and ensuring that they are sent in at the appropriate time. The new system includes a statewide phone system for people to call in order to reach a worker. It has received some criticism from advocates and DSS clients because they claim that the phone wait times are now too long and that the workers are not receiving the documents that are being sent in.

There are alternatives to some of the options being used for document submission. To help relieve some of the issues with the system, there are some steps that can be taken when submitting information. People can call the DSS client information line and benefits center for self-serve options, avoid calling during peak call times, use mail instead of fax to send the documents in, and open an online account with the state department so that they can get information about their benefits 24 hours a day.

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