You people in Texas better watch out. The links/stories below are just but a little bitty part of Texas. Travis and Hays Counties and TIERS is long overdue.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3828594.html

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/letters/stories/MYSA042506.1O.callcenterfocus.41eef9a.html


Subject: Food stamp backlog affects 6,000 Central Texans

Food stamp backlog affects 6,000 Central Texans Applications for food
stamps sharply decline in Travis County By Corrie MacLaggan
mailto:cmaclaggan@statesman.com

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Monday,
March 06, 2006 South Austin resident Sandra Vinson, 61, applied to
renew her food stamps on Jan. 13. More than six weeks later, she still
didn't have them.
Vinson dipped into her rent money to buy groceries before she was
finally re-enrolled in the food stamp program late Thursday.
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The applications of about 6,000 Central Texans requesting food stamps,
Medicaid or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families are stuck in a
backlog, state officials say.
That backlog started in January, just before the state began rolling
out a new call-in system for Texans to apply for public assistance. It
also coincides with a sudden drop in food stamp enrollment in Travis
County that might be related to the new system.
Some of the 2,900 state workers who found out they would not have a
job in the new system quit, leaving state offices short-staffed and
creating the backlog, officials said.
The new, nearly $1 billion system, which officials predict will save
the state $646 million over five years, involves closing some of the
offices where Texans apply for public assistance and replacing them
with call centers managed by a private company.
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin, said the state should stop the
rollout of the new system until problems are resolved. The rollout
began in Travis and Hays counties and is expected to expand to more
than 20 Hill Country counties in April.
"It would appear that we're playing Russian roulette with tens of
thousands of people who need assistance from the state," Naishtat said.
Vinson said she doesn't like having to depend on food stamps but said
it is the only way she can make ends meet. Numerous calls to state
offices and the new call centers netted conflicting information on her
case, she said.
"The system is circuitous, it's evasive and it's downright spooky that
the information is lost," she said. "I was just about in tears after
this lengthy go-round."
Half of the 6,000 backlogged applications should be processed by
today, said Stephanie Goodman, a spokeswoman for the state Health and
Human Services Commission.
The backlog is the result of the state's transition to the new
call-insystem and not the system itself. But other issues have arisen
that could be directly related to the new system.
About 6,000 children were dropped from the Children's Health Insurance
Program last month because their families weren't told about a new
enrollment fee. State officials reinstated the families and said the
problems stemmed from mistakes at a new call center in Midland.
In addition, there were about 160,000 Travis County residents enrolled
in the food stamp program in December, but only 84,000 in March - a
nearly 50 percent drop. Statewide, food stamp enrollment fell about 10
percent in the same period.
State officials attribute some of the decline to evacuees from
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita no longer qualifying for assistance, but
that cannot explain the huge dropoff in Travis County, said Celia
Hagert, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Public Policy
Priorities, an advocate for low- and middle-income Texans. She
suspects the drop may be related to the new eligibility system.
"It's understandable that there would be transition problems, but we
have to have a contingency plan in place to ensure that people's lives
are not disrupted and damaged," Hagert said.
cmaclaggan@statesman.com; 445-3548




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