Problems noted as FSSA privatization begins
Source: Associated Press (IN), July 2, 2007 06:58 AM
Internal and federal reports on the state's privatization of welfare eligibility note problems with staffing, large caseloads, delays in processing applications for benefits and other issues. State human services chief Mitch Roob said most of the problems are not new and have long plagued the state's application process for the food stamps, Medicaid and other benefits received by 1.1 million people.
……. A spokesman for the union that represented that the caseworkers when they were employed by the state cited a section of the federal report saying welfare clients wanted to talk to their former state caseworkers or to learn who their new private caseworkers were. "People want a caseworker they can call their own. They want face time," said Dave Patterson of Council 62 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.