AGENDA and Minutes - Interagency Working Group on Poverty Elimination 3rd Quarter Meeting, September 17, 2025

Interagency Working Group on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Meeting Agenda and Minutes

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

1:00-2:30 PM

7/f Executive Conference Room, IDHS Building, 401 S Clinton St, Chicago, IL 60607

Via WebEx

Recording

Agenda

1. Welcome/Roll Call - Administrator Priya Khatkhate
2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance
3. Approval of Meeting Minutes: March 19, 2025 and June 18, 2025
4. Housekeeping
   1. Mandatory state trainings
   2. Subcommittee participation
   3. New Poverty Commission email address - DHS.PovertyCommission@illinois.gov
   4. Rules of Procedure
5. SNAP Federal Impact Center - Priya Khatkhate
   1. Effects of SNAP changes across State of Illinois agencies - member feedback
6. Special Presentation: Overview of Federal Policy Changes to SNAP ABAWDs Rules
7. FY25 Annual Report walkthrough - Kaitlin Devaney, IRRPP
   1. Posting of IWGP FY25 Report on member agencies' websites
8. New Business
9. Next meeting - Wednesday, December 17, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM
10. Adjournment

MINUTES

Statutory Members:

Name	Title	Organization	Attendance
Priya Khatkhate	Chairperson, Deputy for Programs	Illinois Department of Human Services	Present
Elizabeth Vogt	Senior Policy Advisor	Illinois Department on Aging	Absent
Tyler Bohannon	Bureau Chief, Legislative Affairs	Illinois Department of Agriculture	Absent
Isabel Velez-Diez	Deputy Director of Policy Development, Planning, & Research	Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity	Present
Anna Koeppel	Legislative and Policy Director	Illinois Department of Labor	Present
Marc Staley	Deputy Director	Illinois Governor's Office of Management and Budget	Present
Dr. Janice Phillips	Assistant Director	Illinois Department of Public Health	Absent
Jennifer Saba	Chief Education Officer - Operations	Illinois State Board of Education	Present
Alyssa Williams	Assistant Director	Illinois Department of Corrections	Absent

Invited Members:

Name	Title	Organization	Attendance
Emily Mueller-Schwartz	AD of Policy and Research	Illinois Housing Development Authority	Present
Carrie Thomas	Deputy Director, Business Services	Illinois Department of Employment Security	Absent
Dana Kelly	Chief of Staff	Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services	Absent

Administrator:  Priya Khatkhate, IDHS-Deputy for Programs

Facilitator: Kaitlin Devaney, Facilitator/Researcher, IRRPP

Guest: 

1. Barbara Hobrock, IDHS-Director of External Engagement
2. Sasha Ongtengco - Arts Alliance, Illinois

Minutes:

1. Welcome/Roll Call - led by Administrator Priya Khatkhate.
2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance; none received.
3. Approval of Meeting Minutes: March 19, 2025 and June 18, 2025.
   • Ms. Anna Koeppel moved to approved both set of minutes, Dir. Marc Staley seconded. The group unanimously approved both set of minutes.
4. Housekeeping
   1. Mandatory State trainings - Dir. Barbara Hobrock reminded the group to complete their state mandated trainings.
   2. Subcommittee participation - Administrator Khatkhate gave a review of the group's subcommittee participation; anyone is still welcome to join other subcommittees, just let Administrator Khatkhate or Len know.
   3. New Poverty Commission email address - DHS.PovertyCommission@illinois.gov
   4. Rules of Procedure - Dir. Hobrock led a walkthrough of the draft Rules of Procedure for the IWGP.
      • Copy will be sent to members for review and for action/adoption on the next quarterly meeting in December.
      • Administrator Khatkhate asked members to look at important parts such as appointing a vice-chair for the IWGP.
5. SNAP Federal Impact Center: Effects of SNAP changes across State of Illinois agencies - Administrator Khatkhate
   • IDHS and HFS have put up websites in response to HR-1 or the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that has had a lot of impact on the SNAP and Medicaid programs.
   • IDHS: SNAP Federal Impact Center
   • HFS: Federal Resource Center
6. Special Presentation: Overview of Federal Policy Changes to SNAP ABAWDs Rules - Jill Outland, IDHS-FCS Interim Associate Director, Office of Policy and Program Integrity
   • One of the biggest changes on the SNAP program is the changes to the Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWD) work requirement.
   • ABAWD age range changed from 18-54 to 18-64 i.e. ABAWD 18 to 64 years old have to work or meet some level of work requirement to get SNAP benefits.
   • The age range for dependent children also changed from 18 to 14 i.e. families with children 15 years old and above are required to meet the SNAP work requirement.
   • Before HR-1, there are normally 190,000 ABAWDs. With HR-1, there are now around 450,000 ABAWDs across the state.
   • People who are experiencing homelessness, under 24 and aged out of foster care at 18, or a veteran that were temporarily in place through October 1, 2030 are also no longer exempted, they are now required to meet the SNAP work requirement.
   • Another major change is that state agencies will be required to pay a percentage of SNAP benefit allotments if their SNAP Quality Control Payment Error Rate (PER) is above 6% beginning FY28. In FY24, Illinois was at 11.56% error rate.
   • HR-1 also added a work requirement for certain Medicaid recipients which begins FY27; IDHS is working with HFS to coordinate the requirement in IDHS' system.
   • Community partners can help spread the word that customers can request exemption (from the work requirements) at any time; customers can meet the work requirement; and customers can regain eligibility.
   • Ms. Anna Koeppel asked what the rationale is for the lowering the age of child dependent from 18 down to 14. Are there expectations that 15-17 and above would not need childcare anymore and would they need to find jobs?
   • The rationale is not clear but children 15-17 are not ABAWD. They are still considered as dependents. The work requirement is only for the children's parents/caretakers/head of household.
   • Ms. Jen Saba asked what the error rate is and what goes into it. The payment error rate is a combination of agency errors and client errors such as overpayment, ex. when a customer was given $240 instead of $200 or when a customer reports their rent as $1000 but it is actually $800 and $200 is utilities.
   • With the payment error rate, the agency will have to rethink in terms of policy what will be required of people to bring in if the primary goal is to make sure there are no errors.
   • There is existing federal policy on reporting job changes, but Illinois has been under a waiver for so long that there is a whole new generation of caseworkers as well as customers who are practically new to the policy.
   • One of the big changes on the side of IDHS is having all the caseworkers back to work in-person to get up to date to these policy changes and to ensure accuracy.
   • Ms. Sasha Ongtengco asked how many caseloads in average does a caseworker have. In late 2017, the state moved to a new integrated eligibility system which is completely task-based; any worker can work on any case though if quantified, the caseload would be around a thousand per caseworker.
7. FY25 Annual Report walkthrough - Administrator Khatkhate gave some highlights on the IWGP FY25 Report which has been already submitted to the General Assembly and posted at the IDHS website.
   • Members will need to post the report in their own agency websites.
8. New Business - none raised.
9. Next meeting - Wednesday, December 17, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM
10. Adjournment - Dir. Staley moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Ms. Koeppel. The group unanimously agreed to adjourn the meeting at 2:04 PM.