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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Ind. Courts - More on: "ACLU suit targets state welfare fixes"

This ILB entry from May 20th reported on a suit brought in Marion County by the ACLU.

Today the Indianapolis Star's Tim Evans reports on the filing of a second suit, under the headline: "LaPorte County suit seeks to halt welfare privatization: FSSA privatization effort has led to many losing aid, plaintiffs allege." The story begins:

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.

The suit seeking to block expansion of the state's $1.2 billion modernization project names Gov. Mitch Daniels, FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob and Zach Main, head of the agency's Division of Family Resources, as defendants.

In paperwork filed Friday, the plaintiffs asked the court to prohibit FSSA from expanding the project to the state's Region 3, which consists of LaPorte, St. Joseph, Lake and 10 other counties in the northwestern part of the state.

LaPorte Circuit Judge Thomas Alevizos has set a hearing for Sept. 2 on their request for a preliminary injunction.

From later in the story:
The LaPorte County suit is the second filed in connection with the FSSA project. In May, the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit in Marion County alleging problems with the project have cost some disabled residents food stamps and other benefits they need to survive.

The new suit contends the modernization rollout in other parts of the state -- which changes the way needy Hoosiers can apply for assistance -- has resulted in thousands losing food stamps, Medicaid or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families benefits at the same time assistance rolls are growing in sections of the state where the old system remains in place.

In particular, the suit notes, the number of applications rejected for failing to cooperate in establishing or verifying income and failing to complete a personal interview increased from 7,162 in May 2006 to 17,919 in May 2008 -- a jump of 150 percent.

The plaintiffs claim that many of the problems and lost benefits stem from changes that replace much of the face-to-face contact with state caseworkers who knew and worked with individual recipients -- the heart of the old system -- with a new intake process that relies heavily on privately run call centers and the Internet.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 26, 2008 09:11 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts