HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — The Trump administration again appealed a ruling Monday that it must pay full SNAP benefits in November.
Lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay full payments until the shutdown ends.
A SNAP recipient from Henry County says her card is completely locked, and she isn’t alone.
Lenette Holland told Channel 2 investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln that she is overwhelmed trying to feed her grandchildren since her state-issued SNAP funds expired on Nov. 1.
“So frustrating. It’s stressed me out. I have shingles. Like, this is really bad. It’s triggering.”
She’s one of more than 1 million Georgians waiting for the government shutdown to end so they can afford groceries again.
She said she and many other SNAP recipients can’t tell whether partial funds hit their accounts.
“Some of us can’t get to them because our cards are locked,” Holland said.
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Over the weekend, recipients flooded social media with complaints after they saw SNAP funds reversed following a Supreme Court ruling that paused a federal judge’s order to release partial emergency funding.
One Facebook user wrote that the state reversed SNAP funds from her card. But the state told Lincoln that it hadn’t reversed any payments in Georgia.
“We are absolutely caught in the middle,” Holland said.
The Georgia Department of Human Services said it will issue partial SNAP payments by Tuesday, Nov. 11, under new federal directives.
The agency said remaining benefits will be released on recipients’ normal distribution dates throughout the month.
“I was optimistic,” Holland told Lincoln.
But Holland said that optimism means nothing if she can’t unlock her account.
The agency said it’s working with its third-party vendor to fix the locked-card issue.
“It’s a problem. We need the government back. We need the federal workers back at work,” Holland said.
Eligible recipients will receive 65% of their benefit amounts.
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