Budget cuts, growing need create welfare ‘crisis’

BOISE – Idaho’s welfare programs are in “crisis,” legislative budget writers were told Tuesday, with soaring caseloads, much-reduced staff, work going undone and error rates drawing possible federal penalties.

“They just could not keep up,” acting welfare administrator Greg Kunz told lawmakers. “For many of us, it has been a very difficult time.”

The welfare division of the huge Department of Health and Welfare, which includes food stamps, cash assistance, child support and more, has seen its budget actually decline in the past three years, though it’s serving more and more people. Welfare staffing has dropped from 709 people in 2001 to 550 in 2004.

This came as overall Health and Welfare spending was rising quickly, almost entirely because of large increases in Medicaid, the joint federal-state program that provides health coverage for poor people and people with disabilities.

“The end result was a serious deterioration in the quality of work done in the division, and we experienced compliance issues in several areas,” Kunz said.

Now, the division is seeking an infusion of new staff: 43 more people to be added this year to work in food stamps; 25 more people next year to work in the child support program; and $3.1 million next year for contractors to audit the child support program, which collects child support owed by noncustodial parents. Some of that support goes to reimburse the state for welfare payments.

Lawmakers were skeptical.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said the child support program has had difficulties ever since she’s been observing it. “It’s been my observation that that unit has chronic problems, and I’m hesitant to invest more money in it. … Why is it so difficult to get a handle on what would appear to be some simple math?”

Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, questioned the error rate in the food stamp program, which nearly brought Idaho a $1 million federal fine. “I just have a hard time buying the excuse that we’re understaffed so we have these error rates,” he said. “There is no excuse for having errors.”

Kunz said layoffs in the food stamp program led to staffers simply not having enough time to check everything they needed to check for each case.

“We have more work to do than there is time to do the work,” he said. “It’s important to understand that it’s a systematic problem. Staff have worked really hard trying to make this work with the resources that they had.”

The lawmakers’ examination of welfare programs came as the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee holds an unusually detailed series of hearings this week on the Health and Welfare Department’s budget. Today, the hearings will continue with a review of the Medicaid program, the fastest-growing piece of Idaho’s state budget.

Kunz said that under welfare reform, Idaho has redesigned its cash-assistance program into a temporary service with a maximum welfare grant of $309 a month per family, and a two-year, lifetime limit. Though that drastically cut the number of families receiving cash assistance from the state, other programs, including child-support collection and food stamps, continued to grow. The welfare division also determines eligibility for the fast-growing Medicaid program.

When Idaho’s economy nose-dived during the past three years, the welfare division absorbed major budget cuts, Kunz said. But the same economic factors that caused a state budget shortfall also prompted more people to seek help.

“When the economy is doing poorly, many families hit hard times,” Kunz said. “Jobs disappear, raises do not happen, higher-paying jobs are replaced with lower-paying jobs. When the people of Idaho face these economic hardships they seek help, and a common source of help is the food stamp program.”

From 2002 to 2004, the food stamp case load grew by nearly 32 percent. Overall, the welfare division’s case load has grown 17 percent in the past two years, while its staffing has been reduced by 22 percent.

Kunz said that when error rates high enough to prompt federal penalties surfaced in the food stamp program, the department shifted staff to food stamps from child support, eligibility determination and welfare. “We robbed Peter to pay Paul, and Peter wasn’t doing all that well at the time,” he said.

If the department gets the additional staffers, it will move back some of the “stolen” resources, he said.

“Efforts to shift priorities may work for a short time or for a one-time situation, but it will not solve our compliance problems,” he told lawmakers. “It will not allow us to do the work required by law or rule, but just as important, it does not allow us to do the job expected by Idahoans who are in need, who come to us for help.”

And, he said, “We still see a lot of citizens in Idaho coming to us asking for help.”