Family Support Division changes are questioned

The Family Support Division office in Cape Girardeau is going to a different way of doing business, but some question whether it will be a change for the better.

The Family Support Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services offers child-support services, income maintenance and self-sufficiency programs, such as food stamps, health care and blind services, and rehabilitation services for the blind, according to its website.

The division is moving to establish resource centers and specialized processing centers throughout Missouri. Its office in Cape Girardeau at 220 N. Fountain St. was chosen to be developed into a processing center, said Rebecca Woelfel, communications director with the state's Department of Social Services, in an email. Calls to the local office were referred to Woelfel.

Resource centers will serve customers' needs, such as taking applications and helping with questions and problems. Specialized processing centers will handle operational activities formerly performed in Family Support Division offices, such as entering data and processing customer information, Woelfel said.

"Modernizing this process will enable us to work more quickly, accurately and efficiently," she said in the email.

Because the resource centers will be staffed only for customer service functions and not for processing, the center may need fewer workers after the transition, Woelfel said.

"Employees will be assigned to resource and processing centers as needed to manage customer service and case-processing activities," she said in an email.

All customer-service activities performed by staff at the Cape Girardeau location will be moved to a different site "to improve customer service and convenience," Woelfel said. She did not comment further on where the new location would be.

Mathew Rigdon, public policy advocate for SEMO Alliance for Disability Independence, worries that the Family Support Division changes will take away too many positions and cause a backlog, which he said already is happening in Sikeston, Mo., and Charleston, Mo.

SADI works with the support division on Medicaid benefits and "spend-down" requirements, he said. Medicaid spend-down requires people on Medicaid disability to spend down their income to meet the program's criteria, which is equal to or below 85 percent of the federal poverty level, Rigdon said.

Those who participate in the spend-down program have to write a check to the Family Support Division or spend money on qualifying medical expenses to bring their incomes to the level to qualify for Medicaid, he said. Rigdon estimated SADI has 35 to 50 people affected by spend-down processes.

"We're already having problems with getting spend-down payments processed, and with this restructuring and the decrease in staff, we're worried it will make an existing problem worse," Rigdon said.

Staff members with the Southeast Missouri Food Bank, which works closely with the Family Support Division to get benefits to those in need, hope the transition will be a benefit.

"We look for positive results," said Missy Rice, the food bank's agency relations and program director. "We want it to work, ultimately; it's just really hard to say, and I'd hate to say either way."

Joyce Wallenburg, the food bank's coordinator for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as food stamps, said since the beginning of the program's fiscal year in October, 368 SNAP applications from the 16 counties were sent from the food bank to the Department of Social Services. Of the 368 applications, 67 applications were from Cape Girardeau County, she said. Not everyone who applies will be approved, Wallenburg said.

A timeline for the restructuring has not been set, Woelfel said, and no other details are available at this time.

"These changes will not negatively impact customer benefits, our ability to serve their needs, or actions regarding their case," Woelfel said.

adowning@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent addresses:

220 N. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, MO

1913 Rusmar St., Cape Girardeau, MO

3920 Nash Road, Cape Girardeau, MO