The Elderly Simplified Application Project (ESAP) is a demonstration project that seeks to increase participation among the elderly low-income population by streamlining the application and certification process. ESAPs are limited to elderly households with no earned income, although some projects also include disabled households with no earned income. The waiver is granted for a period of five years.
Specifically, the demonstration project waives the recertification interview requirement, makes use of data matches to reduce the amount of client-provided verification, and extends the certification period to 36 months. ESAP demonstration projects also often make use of a simplified two-page application. Early ESAP demonstrations also waived the interview at initial certification for households. Waiver data and lessons learned from existing projects have shown the importance of the certification interview in familiarizing SNAP applicants with SNAP eligibility requirements, appropriate deductions, and reporting process.
In order to better facilitate this, ESAPs will continue to incorporate a waiver of the recertification interview, but will no longer waive the initial certification interview. If a senior and/or disabled person was receiving SNAP benefits outside of the waiver and then transitioned into the demonstration, they will only need to be interviewed at recertification, if an interview is requested. They do not need to have an interview under the demonstration, as they already had an initial interview at the time of SNAP certification. Twelve-month interim reports are still required for all ESAP participants.