Hawaii Administrative Rules
Title 17 - DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES
Department of Human Services
Chapter 647 - APPLICATION PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS
Subchapter 4 - SPECIFIC PROVISIONS FOR FOOD STAMPS
Section 17-647-31 - Interviews
Current through February, 2024
(a) All applicant households, including those submitting applications by mail, shall have a personal interview with an employee designated by the department. The applicant may bring any person the applicant chooses to the interview. The individual interviewed may be:
(b) The interviewer shall review the information given on the application and resolve unclear and incomplete information with the household.
(c) The interviewer shall advise a household of its rights and responsibilities, including the appropriate application processing standard and a household's responsibility to report changes, its responsibility to comply with monthly reporting requirements, if appropriate, and consequences for failure to monthly report or report changes in the given time limits, during the interview.
(d) The interview shall be conducted as an official and confidential discussion of household circumstances and shall be limited strictly to facts that relate directly to food stamp eligibility criteria.
(e) The applicant's right to privacy shall be protected during the interview. Facilities shall be of adequate size and layout to assure privacy and to protect the confidentiality of the interview.
(f) The personal interview shall be waived upon request by any household which is unable to appoint an authorized representative and which has no household member able to come to the branch because they are sixty-five years of age or older, or are mentally or physically handicapped. The personal interview shall also be waived if requested by any household which is unable to appoint an authorized representative and lives in a location farther than thirty miles of a certification office that provides at least four hours of certification services every two weeks.
(g) The personal interview shall be waived on a case by case basis for any household which is unable to appoint an authorized representative and which has no household member able to come to the office because of transportation difficulties or similar hardships. These hardship conditions include, but are not limited to:
(h) The branch shall determine if the transportation difficulty or hardship reported by a household warrants a waiver of the personal interview requirement and shall document this determination in the case file.