HAR §17-647-31. Interviews

(a) All applicant house- holds, 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: (1) The head of the household; (2) Spouse of the head of the household; (3) Any other responsible member of the household; or (4) An authorized representative. (b) The interviewer shall review the information given on the application and resolve unclear and incomplete information with the household. §17-647-31 647-27 (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: (1) Illness; (2) Care of a household member; (3) Hardships due to residency in a rural area; (4) Bad weather; or §17-647-31 647-28 (5) Work hours which preclude in-office interview. (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. (1) The branch shall offer households for which the personal interview is waived the alter- natives of a telephone interview or home visit. Home visits shall be used only if the household agrees and the time of the visit is scheduled in advance with the household. (2) Waiver of the personal interview shall not exempt a household from the verification requirements, although special procedures may also be used to permit a household to comply in a timely manner, such as substituting a collateral contact in cases where documentary verification would normally be provided. (3) Waiver of the personal interview shall not affect the length of a household's certification period. (4) The branch shall schedule personal or alternative interviews as promptly as possible after the filing of applications in order to ensure that eligible households receive an opportunity to participate within thirty days after the application is filed. If a household fails to appear for the first interview scheduled, the branch need not schedule any other interview unless the household requests that another interview be scheduled. [Eff 3/19/93 ] (Auth: HRS §346- 14) (Imp: 7 C.F.R. §§273.2(e), 272.5(a)(3))