Boston 25 News viewers who rely on food assistance say they can’t get ahold of anyone at the state office that connects them with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
25 Investigates found they’re not the only ones. Thousands of calls for help have gone unanswered, and now the state is facing a lawsuit over what advocates say is a growing crisis.
“I’ve tried every single day multiple times,” David Smith told 25 Investigates.
The Shirley man is on permanent disability and receives food assistance through SNAP. The federal program is administered in Massachusetts through the Department of Transitional Assistance, or DTA.
Smith said he started calling DTA after getting a letter stating his monthly benefit was being cut from about $250 to just $31 a month.
“Thirty-one dollars. That’s not, especially today’s economy, it ain’t gonna feed me,” Smith said.
So, he called the number listed on the letter.
“I’ve gone through all the steps, put into my social security number put in my birth year I do everything,” Smith said.
But he said after going through those steps, he couldn’t get through to a caseworker.
“Next thing I get the recording stating ‘due to high call volume. I can’t connect you’ and next thing you know it just hangs up on me,” he said.
It’s the same message 25 Investigates got when we tried the number. And then the call hung up.
Smith said he then contacted his local SNAP office in Fitchburg. That voicemail box was full.
That’s when he called 25 Investigates.
“I think the system is just letting everybody down. Because I have this feeling, if I can’t get through, I’m not the only one,” he told Boston 25’s Kerry Kavanaugh.
He’s not.
‘No call backs’
“No call backs. Couldn’t get a call back from anybody,” Dale Duquette told 25 Investigates.
Duquette has five children. He said he was out of work caring for his mother in hospice when he applied for SNAP in July.
“It was just denial after denial,” Duquette said.
He said things got so difficult that his electricity was shut off.
“My lights got shut off. I upload the shut off notice from the electric company, and I get denied three times that day,” he said.
Duquette said he couldn’t reach anyone at DTA’s main assistance line or his local DTA office in Brockton.
“Food banks, going to family members’ houses, the kids would sleep there, you know. It was rough. It wasn’t easy,” he said.
It took nearly three months for Duquette to get his application approved.
Thousands of calls unable to connect
25 Investigates examined DTA’s own performance scorecard and found thousands of calls for help have been unable to connect this year.
The state’s August 2026 DTA Performance Scorecard defines “calls unable to connect” as calls that end with the high-volume message when a caller tries to transfer from the automated phone system to the queue to speak with a call center representative.
The scorecard also shows just how many Massachusetts residents rely on DTA. The agency says it serves one in seven Massachusetts residents. As of August, 878,922 people in 553,459 households were receiving SNAP benefits.
“In order for SNAP to effectively reduce hunger and make sure that residents who cannot afford food can put groceries on the table for their kids, for older adults, for veterans, for people with disabilities, the system has to work well for the folks who are eligible,” said Vicky Negus, a senior policy advocate at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.
“You go hungry, you skip groceries, you skipped meals, and your financial situation can go into spiral. That is a crisis.”
Negus said the problem is twofold: Changes made by the Trump administration have added layers to the benefit process, meaning cases take workers longer to process, and she says Massachusetts does not have enough caseworkers.
“These two things together have created a perfect storm,” she said.
Negus said MLRI started noticing more and more calls to DTA offices getting disconnected over the last couple of years. She said throughout 2026, it’s gotten worse.
“Those cuts are all red tape-laden, work-intensive cuts. They all take more resources for staff to run them than they used to,” she said.
Lawsuit targets DTA call system
The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute is now suing the state of Massachusetts on behalf of SNAP beneficiaries.
According to the lawsuit, “DTA automatically disconnected 78 percent of average daily calls to the assistance line” in July alone.
And for SNAP benefits, Negus said people cannot simply go online and complete the entire process.
“You have to talk to a worker in order to be approved for SNAP,” she said.. And under federal and state law," Negus responded.
Since the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” took effect in July 2025, the number of Massachusetts households receiving SNAP benefits has dropped 16%, or 105,000 households. Seventy thousand fewer children are getting food assistance, a 21% drop, according to data provided to 25 Investigates. MLRI says people having difficulty connecting with DTA is contributing to that decline and argues people are losing access to benefits because they can’t connect, not because they don’t qualify.
DTA responds
DTA placed some of the blame on changes made by the Trump administration and said the state is focused on ensuring vulnerable people don’t go hungry.
“Our efforts include increasing the number of caseworkers, expanding outreach, enhancing staff training and utilizing new technology to help us serve clients more efficiently,” a DTA spokesperson said in a written statement.
The agency’s own August scorecard shows the workload its employees are handling. DTA reported 28,410 households were due for recertification or reevaluation the following month.
The agency In January, added 78 net-new frontline caseworkers who directly review cases and conduct verifications in January. But expert say hundreds more are needed.
For David Smith, the inability to reach anyone left him scared and frustrated.
“I’m scared that I can’t get a hold of anybody and it’s frustrating and it ticks me off,” he said.
When 25 Investigates passed Smith’s information on to DTA, the agency called him that day and began working to restore his full benefit.
Duquette said people applying for assistance shouldn’t have to struggle to get someone on the phone.
“You’re there to help people. That’s what it’s all about. Ultimately, helping families and you know, so there’s no excuse,” he said.
Lawmakers in the Massachusetts House and Senate have set aside $28 million to hire hundreds of additional DTA caseworkers in their supplemental budget.
25 Investigates will follow the money and see how quickly those workers are hired and in place.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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