— For a decade, hundreds, if not thousands, of developmentally disabled Hoosiers had their state grocery benefit unfairly reduced because they also received food stamps.
The misinterpretation of federal law covers administrations going back to Democrats Frank O’Bannon and Joe Kernan up to the current term of Republican Mitch Daniels.
So it would seem both parties misread a federal law, standing since 1964, that barred states from counting food stamps as income. Indiana capped monthly benefits at $200 for both food stamps and additional financial assistance. Since 2000, that approach adversely hit Hoosiers with developmental disabilities who need financial help to live independently and additional aid in buying groceries.
Sadly, it took a lawsuit for the state to change its clear misreading of federal law.
On July 9, attorney Steven Dick filed a lawsuit on behalf of his 26-year-old autistic son, Michael. When the son’s food stamp benefits were raised to as much as $99 a month, the state reduced his grocery allowance from $139 to as low as $101 — reportedly to keep the son in line with the $200 cap. The family appealed, lost the appeal and sued in Marion County court.
As a reminder, the Indiana Family and Social Services agency was recently fined $1.2 million for miscalculating food stamps. The Department of Agriculture has also criticized the state for not processing food stamps in a timely manner.
But now, Family and Social Services Administration has done the right thing by changing its policy on benefits for the developmentally disabled — though it should not have required even one family to seek a lawsuit.
From now on, the state will no longer include food stamps in its distribution formula, though the $200 cap remains for the monthly grocery allowance.
The state is in conformity with the rest of the country. The state must apply this new policy to all Hoosiers in this category, whether it’s the 6,700 people reportedly enrolled in the Developmental Disabilities Medicaid Waiver Program or the approximately 440 Hoosiers who also receive state aid.
The pain and heartache is already tough to bear for families of the developmentally disabled. They never should have suffered, too, at the hands of their own state government.
— The Herald Bulletin, Anderson
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