Groups discuss effects of cuts to social services
By RUDI KELLER
Columbia Tribune
Sunday, October 30, 2011

Office consolidation and payroll cuts in the Missouri Department of Social Services are hurting families and communities, a coalition of union and advocacy groups was told yesterday during a statewide video conference.

Organized by Missouri Jobs with Justice, the Missouri State Workers Union and Missouri Interfaith Impact, the video conference discussed the impact of changes in the Family Support Division. The conference originated on the University of Missouri campus and was linked via the Internet to groups in Springfield, Kansas City, St. Louis and Kirksville.

“We wanted to give the clients and workers affected by the changes a voice about the impact on them and how services are provided,” said Kelly Anthony of Missouri Jobs with Justice. “We are about to go into another legislative session. It is important to highlight what happens to counties when these people leave.”

The Family Support Division takes applications for food stamps, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and other welfare programs. Although state law requires the department to maintain an office in every county, the department has responded to budget cuts by leaving a single employee in many counties and consolidating work in regional locations. That happened in Central Missouri earlier this year when Audrain County caseworkers were moved to the Columbia office.

When the change was announced in July, social services Director Ron Levy said it would make the department stronger. “As a state agency, we are always looking for ways to improve operations while providing the tools needed to strengthen Missouri families,” he said in a news release issued when the change was made. “By being more efficient in the work we do behind the scenes, we can improve those frontline services that impact families.”

But Lacy Proctor of Centralia, a caseworker who was moved, said the overwhelming burden of work — the average caseload is 750, she said — and other inconveniences have hurt morale and made efforts to bring people out of poverty less effective.

“I feel a loss of purpose,” said Proctor, who credited quality casework when she was pregnant with helping her stay in school and obtain the degree that helped her get her job. “You feel like you are destined to fail every single day when you walk in the door.”

The groups participating are being asked to endorse a series of recommendations that would stop the consolidations, add workers to bring the average caseload down to 300 and increase state revenue to provide more funding for social services. Action on caseloads would require 441 new workers statewide at a cost of $12 million annually.

Consolidation can hurt small communities that relied on the handful of jobs at the county welfare office, said Dave Strickler, Mayor of Edina, the county seat in Knox County. Edina has a population of 1,100, and there were seven jobs at the social services office before consolidation, he said.

The jobs moved to Kirksville, 25 miles away. Coupled with cuts by the Missouri Department of Transportation and the U.S. Postal Service, it means harder work to fight the decline of small cities, he said.

“I thought I could count on our government to be here for our community,” he said. “People still live in Edina, and we still need our government.”

Reach Rudi Keller at 573-815-1709 or e-mail rkeller@columbiatribune.com.