Financial Assistance Services: wait‑time gains but expedited SNAP processing still below federal standard

Ali Ali, director of Financial Assistance Services, told commissioners that FAS has reduced average in‑person service‑center wait times from 22 minutes in 2024 to 16 minutes in 2025; the department's targets are 13 minutes by 2028 and 10 minutes by 2030. "In 2023, the average wait time was 14 minutes. It increased to 22 minutes in 2024... In 2025, we brought the average wait time down to 16 minutes," Ali said, and noted residents can view wait times online.

Ali also highlighted ongoing issues with SNAP application timeliness. He said federal benchmarks call for expedited SNAP processing within 5 business days and regular processing within 30 days, with a 95% federal target. "In 2025, 23% of expedited applications and 70% of regular applications met federal timeliness. By March 2026, those results had improved to 46% for expedited applications and 87% for regular applications," Ali reported. He credited a newly formed specialized expedite team and recently approved staffing (including 4.5% APEs dedicated to SNAP) for the improvement, but cautioned that further work and system modernization (state integration projects such as M2M and Snap Forward) are needed to sustain performance as HR1 increases workload.

Commissioners pressed on sample sizes and the relationship between timeliness and fiscal penalties; Ali said the in‑person service survey captured about 431 respondents in 2025 and that SNAP timeliness is not directly tied to the payment error rate but is the focus of federal corrective action and monitoring.