CT agency admits it hangs up on callers. Claim is it’s to improve service; advocate calls it ‘spin’

Hartford Courant – Thursday, July 2, 2026
By Helen I. Bennett

When Kimberly Smith decided to help a Connecticut man seek reinstatement of his food assistance benefits, she invited him to her office so she could help guide him through the call to the state Department of Social Services call center.

Smith, program director at the Disabilities Network of Eastern CT, said she and the man, who has a disability and had been without his food benefits, made the call.

Then, the man waited in her office for the call back the DSS automated system promises. The call came four hours later, she said.

The only reason the call came at all, however, is because Smith assisted the man with a new DSS call center system that demands that callers who are on hold for a certain time agree to a call back, or they will be hung up on.

“I realize that DSS, having long been starved of sufficient staff to have a minimally functioning call center, is trying to put a positive spin on their decision to program the call center to systematically hang up on anyone who waits more than 10 minutes and does not voluntarily accept a call back, suggesting that they implemented this new system to give clients their time back,” said Sheldon V. Toubman, an attorney with Disability Rights Connecticut.

“What people threatened with losing their DSS benefits want and need is a timely response, not the right to a call back hours or days later — when they very likely will be working or involved in caretaking responsibilities and be unable to answer the call,” he said.

Smith said the man she was assisting does 80 hours of volunteer work with the local fire department and qualifies for SNAP, or food benefits, which were inexplicably cut off in April. “He sat in my office for four hours before they called back,” Smith said.

‘A tiered contact center model’

DSS spokesperson Christine Stuart said the new call system came after the agency “recognized that asking clients to hold for extended periods — sometimes hours — was unacceptable” and it in November 2025 “implemented a new telephone system designed to give clients their time back.”

“Rather than keeping callers on hold, our system now offers a call back option. Clients can either schedule a call back for a future date and time that works for them, or request an as-soon-as-possible call back that holds their place in line,” Stuart said.

She acknowledged that callers are hung up on.

“We set a maximum hold time of 10 minutes; after that threshold, clients are prompted to confirm a call back number or are informed the call will end,” she said in an email answer to questions.

The system had been tested by The Courant to see how it works, as did others who shared similar experiences.

The call center tells the caller when they have reached the “maximum hold time” of about 10 minutes, and that the call will disconnect if the caller does not agree to a call back.

Stuart said DSS “closely monitors call volume alongside the full range of client transactions — applications, renewals, periodic reviews, and change requests — to ensure our staffing reflects actual demand.”

However, she noted, “because client needs vary widely in complexity, we operate a tiered contact center model. Our Tier 1 staff handle general inquiries and resolve roughly 65 percent of calls without escalation, with those calls typically lasting seven to 10 minutes.”

For the “more complex issues — such as new applications, benefit renewals, documentation, and record updates,” they are “handled by Tier 2 staff, where calls can range from 30 minutes to two hours depending on the case,” she said.

“It’s also important context that recent federal eligibility changes have significantly increased the time and expertise required to determine eligibility over the past six months, and we expect that trend to continue as additional Medicaid changes take effect,” Stuart said.

Data shared by DSS shows that 13,685 Tier 2 calls were received in March and 13,122 in April. For those calls, respectively, 10,902 and 11,992, opted for the call backs. While 5,569 Tier 1 calls were answered in March, no number was listed for April, the data shows. Of those who opted for a call back in April, 10,942 answered. The Tier 1 call abandonment rate was 9.97%​ in March and 10.49%​ in April.

There also were 41,197 calls relating to SNAP benefits in March and 36,778 calls for SNAP in April, data shows.

Stuart said that to “make sure no one misses their call back, the system walks clients through phone number confirmation clearly and carefully — reading the number back, offering the option to provide a different number, and repeating the confirmation prompt up to four times if there is no response. If confirmation is still not received after those attempts, the caller is informed they can call back to reconnect.”

“This approach reflects a deliberate organizational decision: our clients have busy lives, and their time matters,” she said.

Toubman said the complicated system of call backs “would not be necessary if they had a call center that had sufficient staff to timely answer calls when received, like every other call center run by private companies and state agencies alike.”

“Sure if you are going to be grossly understaffed … then a call back system might be better,” he said. “The gloss is that we doing this to ‘give time back’ to busy people — most of these people are working during the day in low wage job where you can’t just pick up the phone.”

He and Smith both said they expect the waits and other problems to increase once new rules imposed by the federal government for Medicaid, called Husky D in Connecticut, are implemented.

Starting Jan. 1, 2027, Medicaid applicants and enrollees will be required to demonstrate 80 hours per month of qualifying activities, “such as employment, participation in certain work programs, or community service, or be enrolled in educational program at least half time,” according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Activities can be combined to meet the 80-hour requirement, or it can be met “by earning at least 80 times the Federal hourly minimum wage ($580 per month in 2026),” according to CMS.

“This is already a five-alarm fire, with the new work reporting requirements for SNAP under HR1 already having been implemented and causing increased volume,” Toubman said. “Once tens of thousands of people on HUSKY D start getting notices that their essential health benefits are going to be cut off because of the new red tape imposed by HR1, the further increased call volume will cause a complete meltdown.

“It is time for the state administration to step up to the plate and finally agree to adequately staff, and continue to staff, this essential telephone service, which it has long neglected and which is essentially the only way individuals can get a serious problem fixed,” Toubman said.

The Courant asked DSS if there were any plans to add staff to the call center; the question was not answered.

Smith noted that the man she helped had learned his account information had been received but not reviewed, but when he checked again two weeks later, he was told in error that he was no longer eligible for benefits

Smith said another agency advocate had a client who had to wait 10 days for a call back and had the man she was helping not had his SNAP benefits reinstated, “It would have been devastating to him.”

She said as Husky D and SNAP are separate certifications, the new requirements are likely to be more time-consuming and difficult for people. “This is a whole other layer,” she said.

“I am very worried,” she said.

Toubman said it is new red tape for about 316,000 people, or about 10% of the state population, for “a critical lifeline for healthcare,” and the move to twice a year certification likely means more people lose benefits because of glitches.

“It’s going to create a lot more people threatened with termination and having to call somebody,” he said. “Only a human can fix a problem.”

“This is a massive problem … The way to solve it to finally adequately staff the call center,” he said.

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