DOVER, Del. --- Delaware this week announced it would be issuing SNAP benefits to recipients early this month to help reduce a gap created after the state sent out this month's funding in January.
The change in schedule was attributed in part by officials at the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services to the recent partial U.S. Government shutdown. Delaware SNAP benefits for February were issued early in January due to concerns about funding for the federal program.
The state said it will issue March food benefits to all SNAP households on March 4, rather than staggering them across a three-week period to ensure the more than 136,000 Delawareans who use the program will have as little of a gap between February's benefits and the ones for next month.
DSS typically staggers food benefit issuance between the second and 23rd day of each month. Delaware, along with many other states, issued February benefits on Jan. 17 because of the partial federal government shutdown. Issuing March benefits on the normal schedule would have left some people with up to 64 days between receipt of SNAP dollars.