Senior Assistance Office (SAO)

Senior Assistance Office Introduction

The Department recognizes that seniors (individuals 60 or older) have historically been an underserved population. As such, they can face many barriers to SNAP participation. To mitigate access issues for this unique population, the Department maintains a specialized office within the Holyoke Transitional Assistance Office (TAO) entitled the Senior Assistance Office.

The SAO streamlines the application and certification processes for senior SNAP-only clients through a specialized business approach. This approach includes a separate phone line for SNAP-only seniors to conduct business with the Department and a separate processing queue for staff. Among many goals, the SAO seeks to:

increase the number of senior households receiving a medical deduction through comprehensive screening
increase the use of accommodations and assisting persons/organizations
decrease the number of households in receipt of the minimum monthly benefit amount and
decrease the churn rate for this population

The SAO is an action-based statewide First Available Worker (FAW) model that currently conducts business in two queues:

Senior Office Phone Queue
Senior Office Processing Queue

SAO Phone Line

The SAO phone line is available for all SNAP-only seniors and their Assisting Persons / Organizations, including clients who already have an active case or applied for SNAP using a method other than the SNAP Application for Seniors. The SAO phone line is a call center that routes callers to the next available SAO case manager. Callers are not required to authenticate or select prompts to be placed in the queue for an SAO case manager.

The SAO phone line will operate with the same business hours as the DTA Assistance Line: Monday through Friday 8:15am through 4:45pm.

Important: Seniors identified in BEACON with the SAO indicator may still choose to appear in-person at their local TAO or call the DTA Assistance Line to conduct business with the Department.
SNAP case managers must process these cases according to established business procedures. However, seniors must be reminded that they can be assisted by the SAO by calling 1-833-712-8027. In addition to this information, you must also offer to transfer the call to the SAO at the time of contact.
Seniors electing to conduct business via the DTA Assistance Line or at their local TAO in lieu of the SAO must not be transferred to the SAO by the case manager.

Clients already serviced by the SAO will be identified in BEACON with an SAO Case Indicator.

SAO Case Indicator

An SAO case indicator will be automatically designated by BEACON to distinguish cases that are served by the SAO. To have the indicator applied, the household must be SNAP-only, the grantee must be age 60 or older, and all other adult household members must be age 60 or older. SAO households may also include children under 18.

The case indicator will appear as a gray SAO icon to the left of the client’s name when in the Electronic Case Folder (ECF).

For denied or closed cases, the SAO case indicator will be enabled for 30 days from the date of denial or closure.

Eligible households not previously identified by the SAO indicator will have the SAO indicator applied at recertification. The SAO indicator will not be applied at IR or at case maintenance.

Once the SAO indicator has been applied to a household’s case, all notices sent to the household will reflect SAO contact information including the SAO phone line.

The SAO indicator will not be applied for households that include a grantee determined to be ineligible for SNAP.

SAO Indicator for SNAP / Cash Combo Scenarios

Scenario 1

A cash reevaluation and SNAP recertification are processed concurrently. The cash case is closed, and the SNAP case is recertified.

The SAO indicator will not be applied during the recertification even if the household is otherwise eligible to be served by the SAO.

If the case remains SNAP-only after 30 days and the household is otherwise eligible to be served by the SAO, the SAO indicator will be applied at the time of household’s next recertification.

Scenario 2

A cash reevaluation and SNAP recertification are processed concurrently. The cash case is closed, but is reopened within 30 days, and the SNAP case is recertified.

The SAO indicator will not be applied to the SNAP during the recertification even if the household is otherwise eligible to be served by the SAO. The SNAP and cash cases will remain with the cash case manager.

Scenario 3

A SNAP-only recertification is completed, and the SAO indicator is applied to the case. Several months later, the household applies for cash.

Once the cash case is pending, the SAO indicator will be removed and case transferred from the SAO / FAW model to cash case management.

If the cash case is not approved after 30 days, the SNAP case will return to the FAW model. The SAO indicator will not be reapplied. If otherwise eligible to be served by the SAO, the SAO indicator will be reapplied at household’s next recertification.

SAO Phone Queue

Like the DTA Assistance Line, the SAO phone line utilizes auto-dialer functionality. Beginning September 3, 2018, the SAO phone line automatically places outbound calls to clients at their scheduled interview time using the primary phone in the case.

Note: SAO case managers must confirm the best number to the reach the client at every client interaction to ensure that s/he receives important calls from the Department.

A client who answers the automatic outbound call for a scheduled SNAP telephone appointment will be connected to the first available SAO case manager in the Phone Queue. SAO staff will receive an inbound call to the phone queue as if it were an incoming call to the SAO Phone line.

Scheduled SNAP telephonic appointments display as 440 + APID. To expedite client service, the APID should be used to quickly access the Electronic Case Folder in BEACON when available

Pending Actions to conduct scheduled SNAP telephone appointments must be self-assigned and an interview must be conducted.

Important: Successful outbound auto-dialer calls to clients are not authenticated. To ensure confidentiality, staff must validate the client as being the appropriate person by verifying full name, social security number or APID, address, and date of birth.

If the client does not answer the outbound auto dialer call for scheduled phone appointments, a nightly BEACON batch will update the Electronic Case Folder to indicate that the client missed the scheduled telephone appointment, triggering a centrally-printed Notice of Missed Interview (NOMI) that will be mailed to the client.

A case narrative will document all telephonic attempts of the outbound auto dialer calls, including the date, time, and phone number of the call.

See Phone Queue Actions for more information.

SAO Processing Queue

Seniors who apply for SNAP using the SNAP Application for Seniors are automatically served by the SAO. Additionally, clients choosing to apply online will have their application diverted to the SAO if:

the grantee’s date of birth indicates that s/he is 60 years or older and all other adult household members are also age 60 or older, or
the SSN of a household member in the web application matches the SSN of a client who is in the FAW model and already flagged for the SAO, regardless of reported ages

If a household member listed on the web application doesn’t have an age, the application will default to the FAW model.

SNAP Application for Seniors submitted to the Document Processing Center (DPC) generate an action to be pulled by SAO case managers. Future actions associated with the application/case are added to the pool of actions available for SAO case managers accordingly. This includes case maintenance and recertification-related actions.

Note: The SNAP Application for Seniors replaced the Simplified Application for Elderly Applicants. Since seniors and external agency partners may still retain the old version of the application, Simplified Application for Elderly Applicants that are received by the DPC will also generate an action to be pulled by SAO case managers.

SAO Client Assistance Coordinator

The SAO has a designated Client Assistance Coordinator (CAC) to support and assist staff and clients in navigating the process of requesting, approving, denying and managing accommodations. While all SAO staff are responsible for providing clients with disabilities equal access to Departmental benefits and services, the SAO CAC is available to support SAO staff and provide guidance with Americans with Disability Act (ADA) accommodation decisions or work directly with clients. Due to the specialized nature of the, the SAO CAC will assist clients on a referral basis, rather than on a catchment basis. For a list of CAC responsibilities see Client Assistance Coordinator Responsibilities.

Although situated within the Holyoke TAO, the SAO CAC will only service SAO clients by phone. Non-SAO accommodations and accommodation requests will continue to be handled by TAO CACs in their defined catchment area(s).

If during the course of any client interaction an SAO case manager encounters an accommodation situation in need of CAC assistance or if a client requests to be referred to the SAO CAC, the client must be referred to the SAO CAC according to existing procedures. Please see Schedule an Appointment Page – Client Assistance Coordinators (CACs) for more information.

If it is determined that in-person services are most appropriate or are requested by the client, the SAO CAC must transfer the accommodation to the appropriate TAO CAC.

While the accommodation will be transferred to a TAO for services, the case will remain with the SAO for all other services.

Please see Case Manager Making Client Assistance Coordinator (CAC) Referrals for more information.

SNAP/Cash Combination Households

The SAO serves SNAP-only seniors. If an SAO household subsequently applies for cash, the combination case will be handled by the cash case manager. If the cash case is subsequently closed or denied, the SNAP case will once again be handled by the SAO.

SAO Appeals

All appeals for SAO cases are handled by the SAO Appeal Representative. The SAO Appeal Liaison will also serve as the SAO Appeal Representative. If a client requests an in-person hearing at their local TAO, the SAO Appeal Representative must call into the hearing.