April 11 2003

Simplified reporting has been an important improvement in the administration of the Food Stamp Program. We are pleased to see that about half of the state agencies have adopted simplified reporting, either for just their earned income households or for almost the entire caseload. We encourage Regional Offices to continue to work with states to adopt simplified reporting or expand it to additional households.

In order to gain a better understanding of the implementation issues that States have faced, we called seven State agencies to ask them about their experience in planning and implementing simplified reporting. We also participated in a conference call with many States sponsored by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The attached report is a summary of those calls.

This is an appropriate occasion to thank the regional staff for all of the effort that they have put into simplified reporting – marketing the new policy to states, assisting states through the waiver approval process, and working through implementation issues

Last modified: 11/21/2008