Reducing Barriers to SNAP in Boulder County

Impact

• People who had flexibility in scheduling their interviews had higher approval ratings for SNAP, tended to complete their interviews earlier, and received their benefits faster, by 3-4 days on average
• The reduction in denial rates and the faster approval translated to applicants receiving an additional $100 in benefits over the initial six month SNAP enrollment period
• Text messaging created cost savings for the county—in Boulder, sending information via text costs 97% less than sending mailed notices

The challenge

When clients apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), they typically need to submit an application, verify information about their income or employment by submitting documentation, and complete an interview with an eligibility worker. While this may sound straightforward, in practice, these application steps can be challenging to complete. When clients fail to complete the process correctly, they are denied benefits for procedural reasons. Missed interviews are one of the most common reasons for procedural denials. 

Procedural denials are problematic both for clients and government agencies processing SNAP applications. For clients, a procedural denial means that eligible applicants won’t receive necessary benefits to buy food for their families. For government agencies, procedural denials mean administrative staff time spent processing applications that will often have to be resubmitted and reprocessed multiple times, leading to additional worker hours and longer backlogs, all to determine eligibility for the same household.We know from our work with Los Angeles that flexible interview scheduling can give clients a higher chance of successfully enrolling in benefits. We saw an opportunity to pilot that same approach in Boulder County, Colorado.

Our approach

In most states, clients have no control over the timing of their SNAP interview. Typically, they are assigned an interview time and mailed a notice detailing when to expect a call from an eligibility worker. This process relies on someone receiving the mailed notice with enough advance notice to make time in their schedule—posing a particular challenge for people who lack stable housing, work during business hours, or have parental responsibilities for young children. 

Agencies cannot eliminate interviews, but they can make them easier to complete. We began working with Colorado in 2022, when missed interviews accounted for 23.1% of denials for online SNAP applicants and 18.7% for applicants who submitted by mail. We partnered with Boulder County to test whether moving to a flexible interview process and improving reminders for clients could reduce missed interviews and improve SNAP approval rates. With flexible interviews, applicants are still assigned an interview time, but they are also able to call any time to complete their interview. Text reminders supplemented mailed notices to ensure that clients received important information about the interview process. 

To validate that our approach in Los Angeles could produce similar benefits for clients in Boulder, we conducted a randomized control trial over three months, where 1,554 applicants were assigned to either the status quo (receiving mail about their interview, which did not mention the flexible interview option) or the new flexible interview option with text notifications. We sent applicants who were assigned to the flexible interview condition three messages: a text sent 24 hours after their initial application, a reminder text sent three days after the initial application, and a reminder about their scheduled appointment 24 hours before if they hadn’t yet completed it. 

We used Code for America’s Texting Playbook to ensure our strategy reflected validated best practices in UX design, plain language, and trauma-informed care.

Outcomes

When working with Boulder County, we showed how automated text messages could reduce missed interview rates and improve communication with clients, while minimally burdening staff. In partnership with the Better Government Lab, we analyzed the results of our pilot and found that:

• Applicants who received a text message about the flexible interview option had an approval rate that was 6-7% higher than those who only received the mailed notice with a scheduled interview time.
• Applicants who received reminders and flexibility in scheduling their interviews also tended to complete their interview earlier and receive their benefits faster, by 3-4 days on average.
• The reduction in denial rates and the faster approval translated to applicants receiving an additional $100 in benefits over the initial six month SNAP enrollment period. 

In addition to improving access for eligible applicants, there were also time and cost savings for Boulder County agencies. Applicants offered the flexible interview option were over 10% more likely to complete their interview, which means caseworkers made fewer calls with no answer and clients made fewer calls to reschedule missed interviews. Sending text reminders is comparatively cheap—in Boulder, sending information via text costs 97% less than sending mailed notices. 

Following the success of our 2023 pilot, Boulder County built an automated text message reminder program for clients applying for SNAP, TANF (Colorado Works), and Adult Financial Programs. Since they launched automated reminders in April 2024, they’ve seen a 10% reduction in missed interviews.

Boulder County’s work strengthens a growing evidence base for how to effectively, and efficiently, reduce procedural denials for missed interviews. We believe that state and local governments can structure interview processes to increase interview completion and, by extension, SNAP approvals. Trying out experiments like these, where governments pilot small-scale solutions with positive results, can pave the way for large-scale change.

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