The number of Georgians receiving Medicaid and food stamps has skyrocketed over the past year, stressing a social service system that is facing budget cuts at a time of increasing need.
More and more of these new cases involve people and families that haven't sought public assistance before, say workers who help people apply for these benefits. New applicants include formerly stable working-class families laid low by long-term job loss and home foreclosures.
"It is not surprising that with record unemployment, we are seeing people turn to these supports," said Clare Richie, a senior policy analyst with the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Many of these people are unfamiliar with the public assistance programs, "which makes it critical that there are people to help them with the process."
But even as the numbers grow, state officials plan to cut 137 of the workers who process applications for Medicaid and food stamps. That has alarmed advocates, who say they are already seeing the increasing numbers cause delays in approvals, lost paperwork and cases falling through the cracks.
The planned cuts for fiscal 2011 -- which still must be approved by the Legislature -- come in the wake of 57,282 new Medicaid cases between December 2008 and December 2009, a 9 percent increase to a total of 705,042 cases, according to the state Department of Human Services.
In addition, the state saw 156,777 more food stamp cases in that period, a 32 percent jump to a total of 650,005 cases.
As the state struggles with a huge revenue shortfall, budget makers are proposing a $3.2 million cut that would eliminate 137 workers -- about 6 percent of the state's 2,200 eligibility workers -- who process applications for these services.
A total of 323,586 Georgians are receiving state and federal unemployment insurance, according to the state Labor Department. The state's unemployment rate stands at a record 10.5 percent. The average length of time a person receives unemployment is a record 16 weeks. In February of last year, it was 11.7 weeks.
"More people are unemployed, and they are unemployed longer," said Rajeev Dhawan, director of the economic forecasting center at Georgia State University.
Even before new budget cuts hit when the state's fiscal year begins in July, some areas of the state's human services system are showing the strain of the increased enrollments.
State workers who process applications for Medicaid and food stamps, as well as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, saw their individual caseloads jump by 25 percent from the end of 2008 to the same time in 2009, according to DHS.
In May of last year, the federal government notified the state that an increase in delays on the handling of food stamp cases placed the state under a federal "corrective action plan" to fix the problems.
State officials say they are addressing the delays and making improvements.
Debbie Haston-Hilger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Agriculture Department's Food and Nutrition Service, said, "The decline is a reflection of an increased demand for services, but we believe [the state] is on the road to recovery now with the improvements to their timeliness."
The level of errors for food stamps -- a separate issue that measures overpayments and underpayments on food stamps -- is within the acceptable range based on federal standards, according to state DHS figures.
Still, some workers at nonprofit agencies, who help people apply for state assistance, say they are seeing more problems.
Vicky Kimbrell, an attorney with Georgia Legal Services who helps people apply for services, said she has had so much trouble reaching eligibility workers that she actually submitted a state open records request to obtain the phone numbers of eligibility supervisors.
Some people applying for services are also complaining.
D'Aisa Stone started receiving food stamps after she lost her job as a beauty adviser at Dillard's in October. The single mother, raising a 12-year-old boy, said the $347 a month has helped her get back on her feet.
Trouble started, however, when she applied for Medicaid in February. The Duluth mother sent in a copy of her son's birth certificate, but the state Division of Family and Children Services said it never received it. She also had trouble determining who was her caseworker. No one seemed to know. She received a letter saying she had missed an appointment, but she said she never knew she had one.
"If you call them, you get voice mail," she said. "Sometimes you don't even get to voice mail."
Stone had received food stamps about six years ago, then was financially stable for several years.
Advocates and those who work with people to obtain social services say they see more working-class people signing up.
Rodney Tullie, a counselor at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, said he has seen numerous people who formerly had good jobs and health insurance -- until they were laid off. They have burned through their savings, and some lost their homes to foreclosure. They overextended their credit cards.
Then they turn to food stamps and Medicaid, he said.
"It's the financial distress that's going on," he said.
B.J. Walker, the commissioner of the state DHS, said she had to cut $38 million in state money from the agency's last budget figure of $1.6 billion, which includes state and federal money.
Walker said the cut of 137 eligibility workers could slow the processing time for benefits from 30 days to about 50. The programs might also make more mistakes, she said, especially in food stamps.
"It's the increasing need, coupled with the [loss of] caseworkers -- that's where the crisis comes from," Walker said.
Georgia's social service advocates worry the cuts will do even more damage.
"It leads to more families and children falling through the cracks and not receiving food stamps ... and more children going hungry," said Linda Lowe, a longtime social service activist.
"If the [children] are hungry, they don't learn," said Laura Lester of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, "and they don't stay in school."
The staffing cuts come as state officials are predicting a vast increase in the Medicaid rolls due to the new federal health care reform law. The law will greatly expand the eligibility standards for Medicaid, and Gov. Sonny Perdue's office estimates that the change could increase the rolls by 756,000 people.
The changes to the law go into effect in 2014.
The expansion in enrollment is occurring as Georgia faces a potential crisis in the funding for Medicaid. The state faces a potential funding gap of $608 million in the fiscal 2011 state budget. A proposal for a 1.45 percent fee on hospitals that would raise about $175 million is making its way through the Legislature.
RISES IN ENROLLMENT
Medicaid
December 2008: 647,760
December 2009: 705,042
Increase: 57,282 cases
Percentage change: 9 percent
Food stamps
December 2008: 493,228
December 2009: 650,005
Increase: 156,777
Percentage change: 32 percent
FOOD STAMP INFORMATION
The Food Stamp Program, formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is a federally funded program that provides monthly benefits to low-income households to help pay for the cost of food.
In Georgia, the program is administered by Division of Family and Children Services in the state Department of Human Services.
To qualify, a household -- without an elderly or disabled member -- can have a gross income of no more than 130 percent of the federal poverty level. The gross income limits cannot exceed $2,389 per month for a family of four.
Most people in Georgia who are eligible for food stamps do not have any asset limitations.
Food stamp benefits can be used at stores to buy any kind of food, but they cannot be used to buy alcohol, tobacco, soap, paper products or any other nonfood item except vegetable seeds.
For further information or to apply for food stamps, https://compass.ga.gov/selfservice/
Source: U.S. Food and Nutrition Service
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