Published: August 12, 2008 12:02 am         

State officials ready to field welfare questions

TERRE HAUTE — Welfare recipients and applicants will have an additional opportunity to meet with state officials later this week in Terre Haute. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration is hosting an open house Friday at Ivy Tech on U.S. 41 South.

“We encourage clients to come if they have questions or even if they want to start a new application,” said Lauren Auld, director of media relations for FSSA in Indianapolis. “This is another way we’re opening up lines of communication between FSSA and our clients.”

Indiana’s new welfare intake system includes online and telephone applications. The system was introduced last year in several counties and earlier this year in Vigo County.

“We know that we’ve made a lot of changes to the system,” said Elizabeth Surgener, deputy director of communications and media for FSSA. “As we continue to roll out, we want to make sure that folks know the various avenues that they can obtain services and we also want to make sure that we are listening,” she said.

Opponents of Indiana’s new intake system, which uses a private company, IBM, to handle the telephone and Internet client contacts, have organized a number of meetings around the state. Such a meeting took place last month in Terre Haute, where around 150 people attended, many speaking strongly against the system.

Complaints about the new system range from long wait times on the telephone to lost client paperwork and needless delays. Critics also say that many welfare recipients are unable to use the telephone or Internet application system.

“We never said the system is perfect,” Auld said. “The system was broken before and right now we’re putting together the right players to fix it. … We’re going to continue to make tweaks and we’re going to continue to improve the welfare system in this state,” she said.

Many clients have found the new system very beneficial, Auld added. With gas prices what they are, many clients appreciate not being required to drive to a county office, she said.

Friday’s open house, which will be at Ivy Tech’s main Wabash Valley campus, is open to clients or applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (known as TANF), food stamps, Hoosier Healthwise, Medicaid and HIP – the Healthy Indiana Plan, state officials said.

There are around 1,200 volunteer organizations helping Indiana welfare clients or applicants deal with the new system, FSSA officials said Monday. One such assistance center is the Vigo County Public Library, where staff were trained by state officials on the basics of the new intake system, said Nancy Dowell, director of the library.

“Providing [online] government services is a part of our mission and a part of our strategic plan,” Dowell said. “We want to be that place where people feel comfortable in accessing those types of services. State officials trained library staff to answer basic welfare application questions, Dowell said. “I think we are a very important access site for online services. … Especially for individuals who aren’t used to applying for anything online or aren’t used to accessing the computer, it can be a little frightening at first,” she said.

Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.