For households entitled to expedited service, the application must be processed within 7 days of the application date, so the person can access benefits on the 7th day from the date of application.
An exception to the above shall be granted for residents of public institutions who apply jointly for SSI and food assistance benefits prior to release from the institution per 1417. For residents of public institutions who apply for SSI and food assistance prior to their release from the institution, the worker shall provide an opportunity to participate as soon as possible, but no later than 30 calendar days from the date of release of the applicant from the institution. (SSA will notify the appropriate DCF office of the date an individual is released from an institution. This notification should occur just prior to the date of release.)
For food assistance, the 30- and 7-day period is determined by using the day following the date the application is filed as day number one of the period.For food assistance applications to be considered timely, the household must be provided the opportunity to receive (access) their food assistance benefits by the last day of the processing period. To ensure that timeliness is met, the non-expedited application must be approved in time to allow 4 mail delivery days for the Kansas Benefits Card. The approval notice will be mailed the first mail day after approval to allow time for the household to access benefits by the 30th day.
Note: Even if the household already has an active EBT card according to the ebtEDGE Web Admin system, it will be unknown to the agency whether the person still has possession of the card, thus processing will still have to allow for the 4 mail delivery days for the Kansas Benefits Card for non-expedited approvals. For expedited applications, the application must be coded on the system as expedited when the application is registered. This will result in an inactive Kansas Benefits Card being mailed (unless the household already has an active EBT card according to the ebtEDGE Web Admin system) to the household that day if the registration is done before noon, or the next day if done after noon. Benefits must then be approved on or before the 6th day from the date of application for benefits to be in the overnight batch file issuance, or on the 7th day for an immediate issuance. The household shall either be told of approval at the time of interview/approval processing or a A phone call to the household letting them know that benefits can be accessed will be required to insure that the household has access to the benefits on the 7th calendar day from the date of application. Document the approval discussion (either in-person or on the phone) to insure timeliness. This also applies to 30-day processing if necessary to insure timeliness is met.
