Need food stamps (SNAP) in Arizona? Sorry, we are too far behind to process your request, and even if we do, chances are we’ll get it wrong.
Approximately half of Arizona’s SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, i.e. “food stamps”) recipients lost their food benefits in the past year, according to an article at kjzz.org on May 27, 2026. This change is not because half of the former recipients were obtaining food benefits fraudulently and this change is not because the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Family Assistance Administration (the organization tasked with determining SNAP eligibility) was formerly making mistakes and extending food benefits to Arizonans who did not meet the qualifications. This change is largely because Arizona’s Family Assistance Administration (FAA) is behind in processing the documents submitted by applicants and recipients of SNAP and because the Administration is making mistakes when assessing eligibility – removing people from the rolls who are legitimately eligible, in some cases individuals who have submitted all required documents, but the assessment of these documents was not in accordance with Arizona FAA’s policy manual.
I know this because I have household members who have been erroneously dropped from SNAP in Arizona within the past six months. My household has been receiving SNAP for fourteen years – ever since my then-husband lost his job due to illness and alcoholism, and subsequently contributed very little monetarily to the household, leaving me to shoulder that burden while caring for three young children, one of whom was undiagnosed (at the time) autistic. I have extensive experience with the process of applying for SNAP and meeting all of the reporting requirements.
Permit me to demonstrate the mistakes that the AZ FAA has made regarding my family in the past few months.
My daughter, attending her senior year of high school, turned 18 in October 2025. As a newly minted adult, she became subject to SNAP’s “Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents” rule – she had to demonstrate that she was working part time or enrolled half time in an institution of learning. Of course, she met the requirement – she was a high school student. I received the paperwork from AZ FAA in early October 2025, and had it back to them in the mail, along with the proper documentation from the school, less than one week later. Due to electronic notifications from AZ FAA in December 2025, I realized that the documentation I had submitted had not been processed. I obtained a new copy from the school after the winter break, and submitted it – electronically this time, the first week of January 2026. Two weeks later, the documentation had still not been processed, and I called into the help line. It took about forty-five minutes on hold before I was able to speak to someone. The AZ FAA representative assured me that my daughter would not be dropped from SNAP until after the documents I had sent in had been reviewed. This assurance was incorrect. Two weeks later I received notification in the mail, dated February 4, 2026, that as of March 2026, my high school attending daughter would be dropped from SNAP. As of March 2026, my daughter was dropped from SNAP, and the monthly food benefits that my family of four received was cut by approximately $210.
I navigated the phone system again – this time the process took about half an hour before I could speak to someone. This individual was able to verify that both the physical document from October 2025 and the electronic document from January 2026 had been received by AZ FAA and that neither had been reviewed before my daughter had been removed from SNAP. The AZ FAA representative elevated the issue, and about a week later, on March 16, 2026, the submitted documents were processed and my daughter’s SNAP benefits were restored.
That is not the end of the story – I wish it were.
Allow me to explain the process that one must undertake in order to speak on the phone with a “real person” from AZ FAA. The phone call is placed and answered by an automated system. Next, a series of verifications must be passed – the automated phone attendant verifies, one by one, the caller’s phone number, birthdate, zip code, and house number from the street address and routes the call according to the caller’s purpose, as determined from several automated menus. This process takes approximately five minutes. After all of these hurdles, the automated attendant checks the size of the relevant telephone queue for reaching a live agent. Most of the time – I would guess about 80% of the time, based on my own experience – after investing 5 minutes of the caller’s life with the verification process, the automated attendant explains to the caller that there is no room in the telephone queue, and therefore the call will be terminated. Click. If there is a critical issue, and the caller has a great need to speak with someone from the FAA, another 5 minutes must be invested, probably resulting in yet another “click.” If you “win the phone lottery” and get into the queue, the wait is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and 30 minutes. When I have a pressing reason to contact AZ FAA, I must set aside a minimum 3-hour block of time during the AZ FAA telephone hours in order to complete the call. The process is very frustrating and dehumanizing.
AZ FAA’s mistakes this spring did not end with my daughter. I have twin sons; they turned 20 in May 2026. One is attending ASU full time. The other is on the autism spectrum, level 2, and receives disability services from the state. Both are enrolled in SNAP. When enrolled in SNAP, eligibility is fully checked once per year. Full eligibility was assessed for my family back in August 2025. At that time, my two sons were checked for eligibility under the “Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents” rule (ABAWD). For one son, records of his enrollment at ASU were submitted, for the second son, verification of his disability services from the state was submitted, as disability is one of the methods of receiving an exemption from ABAWD. The eligibility check in August 2025 persists until August 2026.
When AZ FAA finally examined my daughter’s school records on March 13, 2026, the scope of that examination was quixotically expanded to also look at one of my sons, age 19 at the time. I received the March 13 letter, and immediately resubmitted verification of my son’s disability. This time, the submitted document was examined within a few days, on March 16, 2026, and I subsequently received an additional letter informing me that both of my sons had just been dropped from SNAP for “failing to meet exemptions for ABAWD.” My sons’ eligibility, including ABAWD, had been assessed in August 2025 and lasted for one year. The documents that had been used in August 2025 to show their eligibility were mysteriously no longer sufficient in March 2026, and they were subsequently dropped from the rolls. Our family’s food benefit was reduced again – this time only by about $35 per month.
There are steps to take when the AZ FAA makes a determination that the recipient knows is incorrect – there is an opportunity for appeal. I have done a few appeals before. Typically, the appeal is submitted, within a few weeks documentation of the appeal from the appeals department is sent out in the mail, and a pre-appeal telephone conference is scheduled. Very often, during this telephone conference, the error made by AZ FAA is so obvious to the person conducting the conference that the appeals division sends the issue back to AZ FAA to correct the problem. When the issue is more complex, the telephone conference is followed a few weeks later by a hearing in front of an administrative law judge. I am familiar with the steps. I appealed the initial mistake regarding my daughter in February 2026 – although AZ FAA fixed their mistake in March 2026, they did not reinstate the withheld food benefits for the month of March 2026, and the appeal can correct this. I appealed the decision that removed my sons from SNAP in March 2026.
I have yet to receive any paperwork from the appeals department acknowledging my appeals. It has been over four months from the first appeal and over 3 months since the second appeal. If the system functions as it should, my family will eventually receive the erroneously withheld food benefits. I have no idea how long this will take. It is obvious to me that the appeals function is not operating within the timeframe that has been typical in the past. In the meantime, every month our family’s food benefit is more than $200 below what it should be, as determined back in August 2025. We have had no changes in income that are great enough to trigger the SNAP reporting requirement. We appreciate greatly the efforts of the local food bank, and many of our meals are planned around the food that we get from the food bank.
My family is one Arizona household, existing below the income threshold of the Federal Poverty Limit, eligible for SNAP, and three out of four family members have been erroneously dropped from the SNAP rolls during the past four months, despite complying with all verification requests within the timeframes set by Arizona’s Family Assistance Administration. Only one family member has been reinstated. Of the more than 200,000 Arizona SNAP recipients that have lost their food benefits in the past year, I wonder how many of them are just as eligible as my adult children who are attending school and disabled? The SNAP system in Arizona is broken and no longer fulfilling its stated purpose – it is failing to determine SNAP eligibility according to its own policies – and leaving needy Arizonans hungry while the cost of food continues to rise.