In response to COVID-19, the Ohio Department Job and Family Services took advantage of several waivers made available by the United States Department of Agriculture that decreased the administrative burden on the local county agencies during the months of March, April, May, and June. These included:

• Waiving the Interim reporting requirements
• Suspending recertification interview requirements for six months
• Waiving the interview requirement in cases where the agency could independently verify eligibility

These waivers allowed the Cuyahoga County Job and Family Services (CJFS) to focus our resources on the influx of new applications that were being received as a result of the massive job loss occurring during the pandemic. Agency responsiveness during this time were at record levels as our application timeliness rose by 22% and our Contact Center wait times dropped to historic levels.

As Q4-20 began, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021, and Other Extensions Act became law and provided States with the option to extend recertifications by six months, and to adjust interview requirements without requiring waiver approval from the United States Department of Agriculture. Ohio reimplemented these options.

On October 14^th, the option to waive the initial interview completely was reapproved for extension through December 31, 2020.  The County took advantage of this waiver and did not require an interview prior to approving SNAP benefits effective November 30, 2020 throughout the remainder of 2020 .  Additionally, the state took advantage of a previous waiver that allowed recertifications to be extended by 6 months and re-suspended the Interim Reporting requirements.  All recertifications due in November and December 2020, that had not previously received a 6-month extension of their certification period, had their certification period extended through May and June 2021 respectively. Interim reports were not required for October, November and December.

As Q4-20 closed, CJFS began to see a slight increase in SNAP enrollment from November to December due to the reinstatement of the federal waivers.  The number of SNAP applications rose dramatically in November and December likely due to churn of individuals who were removed from the program in September and October due to the loss of the waivers.  CJFS continues to monitor enrollment and access to services in an effort to provide much needed SNAP benefits to the residents of Cuyahoga county during the COVID-19 pandemic.