Thousands in Massachusetts are losing food assistance because of disconnected SNAP calls, lawsuit says
Below is the full text of a Boston Globe article from 09/24/2026.
By
A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Suffolk Superior Court on behalf of Massachusetts residents whose food stamp benefits have been terminated or decreased because they were unable to contact a caseworker through the state’s assistance line due to being automatically disconnected, according to a copy of the complaint.
Callers trying to reach the Department of Transitional Assistance to report changes or check on recertification paperwork have had their benefits cut off, sometimes for months, because they couldn’t get through, according to the lawsuit filed Monday by the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a poverty law and policy center.
The department’s assistance line, on average, automatically disconnected 74 to 81 percent of the calls coming in during the first six months of 2026, according to the 19-page complaint.
The chronic mishandling of calls has contributed to a striking decline of nearly 80,000 households getting assistance from the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the complaint said.
“This collapse of the DTA system for serving clients has contributed to a dramatic decline in the SNAP caseload, which has fallen by 18 percent since August 2024,” the complaint said.
A hearing on a request for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Tuesday , court records show.
The lawsuit was filed against Michael Cole, commissioner of the state’s Department of Transitional Assistance. The department handles food stamp cases in Massachusetts.
“No one in Massachusetts should go hungry,” a department spokesperson said in an email Thursday night. “President Trump and Congress have made changes that are causing people across the country to lose SNAP benefits and making it harder for families to put food on the table.”
“In Massachusetts, we’re doing everything we can to help people stay on SNAP,” the email said. “We’ve expanded outreach, hired additional caseworkers, strengthened partnerships with community organizations and invested in technology to make it easier for eligible residents to access and keep their SNAP benefits.”
Since January, the department has hired 118 new caseworkers, with more to come, according to the email.
“We will continue doing everything we can to make sure families, seniors, veterans and people with disabilities have access to the food assistance they need,” the spokesperson said.
The suit was filed in the name of Jennifer Lark, a married mother of 8-year-old twin boys living in Salem.
Lark and her husband gross $3,200 a month from their part-time hospitality and food service jobs, and their rent is $2,200, the complaint said.
The family received $926 a month in SNAP benefits from February to June of this year until temporary unemployment benefits made them ineligible. Their benefits were terminated July 4, according to the lawsuit.
When Lark’s unemployment benefits ended in August, she was asked to submit paystubs. She did so on Aug. 13 and 16, but the status of her case remains in a “pending review” status, the lawsuit said.
Lark called the assistance line Sept. 1 to check on her case. She received an automated message that said the department was receiving a high volume of calls and she was disconnected. This happened seven times over four days, according to the complaint.
Meanwhile, to try to make ends meet, the family started using credit cards to buy groceries and pay bills. The debts are “snowballing,” and “it feels like we are drowning right now,” Lark said, according to the complaint.
“Some days I feel guilty eating myself, even though I know I need to because of my high blood pressure,” Lark stated in the complaint. “I feel guilty if I eat our family’s food because I want to make sure we have enough for the week. I don’t want to have an egg for breakfast, or finish the rest of our milk, in case my family needs it.”
The lawsuit alleges that the DTA’s failure to maintain a functioning system violates its duty to provide service on a “fair, just, and equitable basis” and violates its duty to operate the SNAP program in conformity with federal law.
It also alleges that families are being deprived of SNAP benefits without due process.
The lawsuit asks the department to restore benefits improperly denied or terminated and to remedy its failure to provide meaningful access to benefits.
New work mandates in President Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill require more screening and additional verifications to reduce payment error rates, which will be factored into the amount states will soon have to contribute to SNAP benefits.
Massachusetts is at risk for being penalized for its high SNAP payment error rate, which rose to 14.1 percent in fiscal year 2024 because of underpayments as well as overpayments. It came down to roughly 11 percent last year, which is about average. But that error rate, which is not affected by incorrect denials or terminations, could climb again if the SNAP worker-to-case ratio remains high and clients can’t get through to report changes, the Globe reported.
