Flood of food stamp requests drains agency

AUSTIN — State employees can't keep up with applications for food assistance, and the inadequate staffing to handle the casework is making them frustrated and stressed out, some say.

Morale is lousy at the agency that manages the program. Many work long hours, but the cases keep stacking up. The conditions are blamed for high absentee rates and employee turnover.

Some welcome a recent class-action lawsuit that accuses the state of violating federal rules requiring food stamp applications to be certified within 30 days. Many applicants must wait months before they get food assistance.

“The morale is very, very low right now just because of the amount of work. Staying late kind of wears a person down, so you get a lot of absenteeism, which contributes,” says Joan Barasch, who has worked nearly 20 years for the state. “We are just getting bombarded with complaints of cases not being done on time.”

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6604635.html

It was a fail.



And the cost of that failure was extremely high. Not only because the agency money that was wasted in that privatization attempt that was abandoned, but the human cost and now the costs of litigation. Republican public policy ( read privatize everything) is a big failure.

The public sector does a much better job at a lot of things and this was one of them - until the Rs messed with it. They can't stand the government doing anything - even if they do it right and at lower cost than the private sector.

Sonia

Where's the profit in that?

Maybe they could build toll booths so people who want to apply for food stamps can do it quicker if they pay a toll instead of waiting with everyone else the usual way. Someone could make a lot of money that way.

Maybe a few well-placed campaign donations could make it happen?

I left just in time. When I left we were still run reasonably well. But consolidation had just started. Yeah, that went well... :eyes:

Oh, and I know Joan Barasch. Interesting that if I had still been a state employee I'd be a 17-year vet now.

Republicans have ruined that agency. Back when it was DHS we got federal bonus money for being timely and accurate way beyond standard. I remember cashing a few extra checks. Those days are LONG gone thanks to the Republicans starving it dry with their ill-conceived privatization push. A bunch of good employees left. Oh well...sucks for...everybody.

when I worked for MHMR, before it was privatized, they had the bonus money thing too - for days saved in state hospitals by treating well at the clinics. We built a new building and I was the only doc - a part-time (moonlighting) resident.

Now that it's privatized people can hardly get in - 6 month waits, and state hospitals are full.

In that case it is more blatant. The private company gets a check for the year and whatever they don't spend on treatment is profit. Kinda like private insurance companies, see? They have rules about who they have to treat but they are not enforced, wink wink.

Shoulda thought of that parallel sooner.

Anybody notice that Texas DU posts outnumber all other states? Are we a vocal group or do we just talk too much?

But everything is bigger in Texas of course. That's why our forum is the most active.

:P

Sonia