In Connecticut, a 2024 analysis showed SNAP recipients with diabetes were 91% more likely to lose benefits. In Georgia, people with chronic conditions were five times more likely to be dropped. Not because they didn’t work. Because they couldn’t outpace the paperwork.
A woman in Georgia remembered calling three different offices to ask a single question: how many hours did she need to report? No one could tell her. She gave up.
One woman in Athens received a disqualification notice for “incomplete documentation”—on a form the portal wouldn’t let her upload.
“There was no submit button,” she said. “Just a clock that ran out.”
“Even with everything going right, people lose their jobs. People get sick. Their kids get sick.”
Crystal Ortiz kept a spreadsheet. Each hour logged—volunteering, tutoring, class placements—was a thread keeping her Medicaid intact while she pursued a master’s in social work. “I would have to make major cuts to the food that I get” if she fell below the 20-hour line.
Some didn’t even get that far. Kelsey Williams, a mother of two in Gwinnett County, tried for weeks to apply. “I got the feeling they really didn’t want to help me,” she said. After three dropped calls and a portal crash, she gave up. Her youngest had a cold. She found a workaround at a walk-in clinic—but it cost more than she earned that day.
By mid-2025, Georgia had spent more than $90 million launching Pathways. Most of it went to tech contractors and consulting firms. Fewer than 8,000 people enrolled—less than 3% of those eligible.
The rest? Stuck in loops: error pages, voicemail spirals, form resets. Even users who managed to navigate the system said it felt engineered to exhaust them.
“System Message: You have timed out. Please restart your application.”
“We have to survive this week first.”
Policymakers often point to declining caseloads as proof of success. “Let’s help people get lifted out of poverty into jobs,” said Speaker Kevin McCarthy. But the jobs most recipients can get are unstable by design. Nearly half of low-income service workers report fluctuating hours each week. A single bad shift can make someone non-compliant—even if they never missed a day.
Seaborn tried tracking every call.
“I started logging every call I made,” he said. “Got a notebook for it. But there’s never anyone to send it to.”
Tea Church, a stay-at-home mom of five, said the new SNAP rules would “drastically, negatively impact our family.” Her youngest son has intensive needs. “I want to work,” she said. “But we have to survive this week first.”
And even families who comply still fall short. Jasmine Bryant lost her family’s SNAP benefits after a paperwork delay. “I did everything I could to make sure the kids didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “It made me feel like a failure.” Her fridge was mostly condiments. The food pantry had limits.
“We are beginning to wonder if it is not presumptuous to take for granted that some people should have much, and some should have nothing.” —Harry Hopkins, 1936