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INDIANAPOLIS – The state rollout of a new welfare-delivery system that has spurred a lawsuit and angered hundreds of residents hit Allen County and eight other northeast Indiana counties this week.
The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration signed a $1.16 billion modernization contract last year to privatize much of the eligibility system related to food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare benefits.
The goal is to move from a purely face-to-face, paper-based system to an automated one while also limiting fraud and saving money.
“Indiana’s welfare system operated like a bank in the 1950s and 1960s. We were forcing Indiana’s neediest citizens to jump through too many hoops to receive services,” said Zach Main, director of FSSA’s Division of Family Resources. “We needed to modernize it and make the system more accessible.”
The initial rollout started in October in 12 north-central Indiana counties, including Delaware, Grant and Wabash counties. Then in March, the state added 27 counties in southern and western Indiana, such as Clark, Floyd and Vigo.
On Monday, 20 more counties came online: Allen, Adams, DeKalb, Huntington, Jay, Kosciusko, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley in northeast Indiana and Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Knox, Pike, Perry, Posey, Spencer, Warrick and Vanderburgh in southwest Indiana.
Fort Wayne is the largest urban center to be part of the program so far.
In the past, Hoosiers needing these benefits would apply in person at a local county welfare office and be assigned to a caseworker who kept tabs on the case.
But now, Hoosiers are being directed to the Internet and call centers to handle the applications, questions and concerns.
A recent update on the rollout shows that Hoosiers so far are favoring the call centers over the Internet, with 800,000 calls versus 22,000 online applications.
FSSA also estimates clients will save 105,000 gallons of gasoline as a result of not having to make multiple trips to the local offices.
“What we can say is statewide we are processing more applications faster than we ever had,” Main said. “We are not going to derive success on whether we give out more benefits or less.
“We are most concerned about serving the people we need to serve and serving them accurately.”
He also made clear that at least one county office is still open in every county where people can apply or reapply. He did concede staffing has been decreased in those offices, though.
And it is clear some recipients are not happy with the new system. The complaints heard most often include being terminated for failure to provide documentation; long call-waiting times; long processing times; and caseworkers who are no longer able to help at the local offices.
Problems with the new automated system have cost some residents with disabilities the food stamps and other benefits they need to survive, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged in a lawsuit filed recently.
The lawsuit claims FSSA denied or terminated benefits to each of the plaintiffs when the agency was missing documents such as a birth certificate or a medical record, documents the plaintiffs had delivered previously. In each case, benefits were cut off with a letter citing “failure to cooperate,” with no further explanation
And several town-hall meetings have been conducted, including one in Muncie on May 13 that drew 500 angry residents to vent about the new system.
Pam Brookshire, director of program operations for Community Action of Northeast Indiana, thinks Allen County’s experience will be about the same. CANI helps disabled and poor Hoosiers with various benefits and services in an eight-county area.
She said she has heard no complaints in the first three days but called it the “lull before the storm.”
“Three weeks from now, three months from now, you’ll be doing a whole other story on the real experience,” she said. “At its essence this is a good idea. I just don’t think the people who thought it up know enough about the people we serve.”
nkelly@jg.net
