About 11,000 Oregonians who receive food or cash assistance are being asked to verify their income before the end of September. For households that receive a notice, missing the September 28 deadline could mean a smaller benefit payment or a closed case beginning in October.
The Oregon Department of Human Services began mailing the notices September 16 to selected recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. Some of those households also receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, and will see both programs addressed in their notice. The agency expects the mailings to reach about 11,000 people by the end of this week.
The request follows a comparison between income reported to ODHS and earnings information in The Work Number, an employment and income verification database. In some cases, a household reported income below 130 percent of the federal poverty level, while the database indicated it may be at or above that level. ODHS is asking those households for information so an eligibility worker can review their cases.
A notice does not mean the household has been found ineligible, and the 11,000 mailings are not a count of people expected to lose benefits. A difference between two sets of income records still needs to be examined. The review will determine whether a household’s benefits should stay the same, change or end.
For recipients in Southern Oregon, the immediate step is to check the mail and read any Missing Information notice carefully. It identifies what ODHS needs and when the recipient must respond. The agency says people should provide the requested income verification by September 28 even if they believe the earnings information is incorrect. An eligibility worker can review the difference with them. Recipients do not need to contact their employer to answer the notice.
Anyone who misses the deadline should still contact ODHS. The agency says a worker may be able to help, although benefits could already be affected. People with questions can call the ONE Customer Service Center at 800-699-9075 or visit a local ODHS office.
SNAP provides monthly benefits for groceries. TANF provides monthly cash assistance to qualifying families with children, with payment amounts based on family size and income. ODHS reported 639,261 individual SNAP recipients statewide as of August 30. It has not provided a county breakdown for this round of notices, so the number being sent to Josephine or Jackson County residents is unknown.
The September 28 request applies to people who receive these notices; it is not a new application deadline. Southern Oregon residents considering SNAP or TANF can still apply online, by phone or at an ODHS office. Applicants should be prepared to provide information about their household and income and complete the agency’s eligibility process. A family applying for TANF can also apply for SNAP through ODHS.
The income checks are part of Oregon’s effort to improve the accuracy of SNAP payments. The state’s federal fiscal year 2025 payment error rate was 14.14 percent, a measure that includes benefits paid in amounts that were either too high or too low. ODHS plans more income checks over the next 12 to 15 months, though it has not set a schedule for them. For now, the September 28 deadline is the one facing households that receive the current notice.