Recently in Social Services Category

Source: By Alan B. Krueger, Alan B. Krueger is an economist at Princeton., New York Times Economix blog, October 20, 2008, 12:46 pm

You would think that if the government spent over a million dollars on research and discovered that a new way of helping the unemployed find jobs was less effective and more costly than the old way, it would continue with the old way. Yet the Bush administration has done the opposite. It buried a careful study that found that outsourcing job placement services for the unemployed at the local level was less effective than traditional state public labor exchange services, and continued with its pursuit to contract-out and devolve a cost-effective program.

... .... . A team of well-regarded researchers at WESTAT conducted a thorough five-year study that was completed in February 2004. Release of the report was delayed for four and a half years. The Labor Department quietly released it on the Web on Sept. 11, 2008. In fact, the report is so deeply buried that even if you Google its title, "Evaluation of Labor Exchange Services in a One-Stop Delivery System Environment", it does not come up. If you want to find it, click here.

Source: By Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times (CA), October 30, 2008

Over the last 20 years, Los Angeles County taxpayers have paid tens of millions of dollars to a Virginia-based company to perform work criticized repeatedly as inadequate by county officials. Faced with the possibility that its $32-million contract won't be renewed, Maximus Inc. has spent more than $124,000 this year on lobbyists and thousands more on political contributions to county supervisors, including some not running for reelection for two more years. Maximus' story illustrates the intense fights that go on as the Board of Supervisors doles out millions of dollars in often lucrative contracts. In Maximus' case, as well as many others, a county contract offers the possibility of a big payout for providing services to the poor.

.... The recommendation to cut Maximus follows previous efforts by county officials to sever the county's relationship with the company, whose aggregate 13 years of service have been marked at times by significant shortcomings.

Updated: Under heavy lobbying, L.A. County supervisors agree to rebid welfare contract
By Garrett Therolf | November 19, 2008 (no link)

Source: By Bob Scott, Journal & Courier (IN), October 15, 2008

A total of 59 Indiana counties are involved in the privatization of Medicaid and food stamps. Gov. Mitch Daniels started the official rollout to counties in October 2007, but it is unclear when Tippecanoe County's Family and Social Services Administration office will join the process. "There is no timetable," said Lauren Auld, Indiana FSSA spokeswoman. "FSSA has been supporting 15 or so counties that were flooded this summer and in September. "The rollout for other counties has been postponed indefinitely."

..... Cardwell said the state contract with the IBM/Affiliated Computer Services coalition must be terminated. He said the state should take over the welfare system once more.

Source: By NICK WERNER, Star Press (IN), October 9, 2008

Advocates for Indiana's seniors called on state government Wednesday to return traditional caseworkers to Indiana's welfare system. In a press conference at the Center Township Trustee's office, representatives of Indiana Home Care Task Force, Indiana Alliance for Retired Americans, United Senior Action of Indiana and Madison County Triad criticized a move that privatized the delivery of welfare benefits, including food stamps and Medicaid. The project launched a year ago in a 12-county pilot region that included Delaware County and has since been expanded to other parts of the state.

Source: Associated Press (IN), September 9, 2008

Myanmar refugees who are struggling to get benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid are asking congressional staffers for help. Refugees met this weekend to tell their stories to Senate Foreign Relations Committee senior staffer Keith Luse and Cathy Gallmeyer, director of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar's northeast Indiana office.

....... Some Burmese refugees have blamed delays in receiving aid on changes to the state's welfare eligibility system that were implemented in the Fort Wayne area in May.

Source: CPPP, September 4, 2008

Protecting children and strengthening families is difficult, complicated work. Doing it well requires successfully engaging the entire community--both the public and private sectors. In this report, we explore the issues raised by how a state draws the line between public and private responsibility, and we make specific policy recommendations. The report compares Texas to the two states that have most completely privatized, Kansas and Florida.

Source: Associated Press (IN), 09.02.08, 6:18 PM ET

Indiana's human services agency is seeking to move to federal court a lawsuit that would block the state from extending changes in welfare eligibility screening to 13 northern counties. The Family and Social Services Administration filed the motion Tuesday in U.S. District Court in South Bend, agency spokeswoman Lauren Auld said. The agency did not yet know if its motion had been granted.

...... The suit contends that FSSA has not adequately told welfare clients that they still have a right to face-to-face interviews with state case workers despite the addition of telephone call centers, Web interfaces and other automation in seeking and recertifying eligibility for benefits.

Source: By Tim Evans, Indianapolis Star (IN), August 26, 2008

Claiming Indiana's welfare privatization drive is hurting needy Hoosiers, eight LaPorte County residents who receive assistance through the Family and Social Services Administration are asking a judge to halt its rollout in their part of Northwest Indiana.

Source: By KEN KUSMER , Associated Press (IN), 08.21.08, 11:34 AM ET

Indiana's human services agency is considering further changes in the way it processes food stamps that likely would cost some clients their benefits, agency chief Mitch Roob said after lawmakers questioned him about the proposal. Roob, secretary of the Family and Social Services Administration, on Wednesday also distributed to lawmakers and reporters a letter from a federal food stamp administrator noting the state had improved its timeliness in processing applications.

........ The new rule, which still must cross several hurdles before being adopted, would require food stamp applicants to submit required documents within 30 days - instead of 60 - or risk having to start the application process all over again from scratch, Roob said.

Source: By Francesca Jarosz, Heather Gillers, Tim Evans and Bill Ruthhart, Indianapolis Star (IN), July 31, 2008

.......... Byrd and other needy Hoosiers are being forced to wait too long for food stamp applications to be processed by a private contractor, according to federal officials who have ordered the state to stop the rollout of its welfare modernization project. The federal action represents a major blow to the controversial privatization effort that is one of the keystones of Gov. Mitch Daniels' first term. A similar privatization project in Texas was canceled last year, two years into the five-year project, amid similar problems.