By Brandi Watters, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
November 22, 2008 10:24 pm
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ANDERSON — Needy Hoosiers could soon find it easier to get — and keep — their welfare benefits.
According to Elizabeth Surgener of the Family and Social Services Administration, a series of changes going into effect in January could make the system more user-friendly.
Indiana’s welfare system was privatized in late 2007, and needy residents in the 12 pilot counties of the new system initially reported problems.
Advocacy groups held public forums and spoke to oversight committees about the growing need for intervention as client complaints about being denied benefits under the new system piled up on their desks.
A similar event was held in Anderson at the UAW Local 663 Hall in April, and more than 100 residents voiced complaints about the new system and how difficult it had become to get welfare benefits.
Most complained that they had lost services in the wake of the rollout of the modernized system.
Surgener said FSSA has decided to extend the period of time between welfare recertifications for clients, which will translate into less paperwork, fewer phone calls and a more efficient system.
“This is not the result of complaints, but it’s really a result of our ongoing efforts to continuous improve our performance and delivery of services to Hoosiers,” Surgener said.
For those clients receiving food stamps, recertifications will happen every year instead of every six months. The period is even longer for elderly and disabled clients, who will see a 24-month span between recertifications.
This measure, Surgener said, will eliminate 260,000 annual recertification phone interviews, or 21,667 per month.
Clients will still fill out a six-question mailer once every six months, she said, in order to inform the state if their income or service needs have changed.
Applying for benefits will also get easier.
Surgener said the current application for food stamps, 16 pages long, will contain just six pages come January.
Applicants will also be able to sign applications electronically when applying online or via phone with a voice affirmation of application.
For those receiving Medicaid and temporary assistance for needy families, or TANF, a phone interview is no longer required for recertification.
This will eliminate another 130,000 interviews per year, Surgener said, or 11,000 calls monthly.
In all, the new changes are expected to eliminate 390,000 interviews annually.
Though news of the changes was welcome, Denny Lanane of United Senior Action, a senior advocacy group, admits skepticism about the potential for improvement.
“We still think it’s going to be a system that’s going to have a lot of problems,” Lanane said.
Though FSSA maintains that the complaints aired by Lanane and other advocates had nothing to do with the changes, Lanane said he believes the state was swayed.
“To me, it’s an admission that the system wasn’t working the way they were doing it,” he said, “and they’re responding to public pressure because we’ve had press conferences all over the state. We’ve continually brought up to different communities all the problems that everyone’s having.”
Lanane said the system would not adequately serve its clients until case managers who deal with individual clients are returned to the system. Modernization eliminated one-on-one case workers, even for those clients who are elderly or disabled.
Clients must now find authorized representatives to handle their benefits applications if they cannot do so themselves.
In the case of seniors, the responsibility to get benefits for the clients has fallen on workers at area nursing homes. Lanane said he’s heard a myriad of complaints from social workers over-burdened by the application process for Medicaid and other welfare benefits. “I hear the same stories that we’ve been hearing ever since we rolled it out.”
Only 59 Indiana counties currently operate under the modernized welfare system, and Surgener said 33 counties remain under the old system. FSSA has not yet set a time frame for the rollout of the remaining counties.
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Madison County residents receiving food stamps
May 13,648
June 14,498
July 15,330
August 15,954
September 16,451
October 15,543
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