Florida Secretary of Dept. of Children and Families Hit with Class Action

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Four plaintiffs have filed a proposed class action against the Secretary of Florida’s Department of Children and Families over the alleged termination of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits they claim are “critical to their nutritional needs.” The 40-page lawsuit claims the four plaintiffs received notices alerting them to the termination of their benefits as a sanction for allegedly failing to comply with SNAP Employment and Training work requirements. According to the complaint, these same sanctions have affected more than 430,000 individuals and stem from the defendant’s “flawed implementation of two complex federal SNAP statutes” responsible for creating the Employment and Training Program, the sanctions imposed upon those who fail to comply that terminates food assistance, and the “Able-Bodied Adults without Dependents” tag for individuals subject to the aforementioned sanctions.

The plaintiffs argue the defendant was not equipped to handle hundreds of thousands of SNAP recipients designated as “Able-Bodied Adults without Dependents” who are subject to the programs employment and training mandates. Summarily, the lawsuit alleges “[the plaintiffs] and hundreds of thousands of members of the proposed class have lost or are threatened with loss of SNAP benefits because [the Department of Children and Families] continues to improperly sanction them for alleged failure to comply with [Employment and Training] requirements.”