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SOCIAL SERVICE, JOBLESS BENEFITS IN HIGH DEMAND

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, October 23, 2009 12:48 AM CDT

The Arkansas Department of Human Services may be busier than ever as employees work to assist a much larger number of people who are unemployed.

Lee Turner, Arkansas Department of Human Services Jefferson County administrator, shares a laugh with the members of the West Pine Bluff Rotary Club Thursday afternoon at Pine Bluff Country Club. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

Lee Turner, DHS Jefferson County administrator, addressed the West Pine Bluff Rotary Club Thursday at Pine Bluff Country Club.

“What challenging times we’re in,” Turner said. “And they are challenging times for DHS as well.”

He shared information provided by Artie Williams, director of Arkansas Department of Workforce Services, who spoke at a recent DHS training convention.

“What he told us was that there are more people unemployed in Arkansas than there have ever been,” Turner said. “He told us that in 2008 there were about 20,000 Arkansas that were paid unemployment insurance benefits each week, but that in 2009, that number had increased to about 50,000.”

With stimulus funding of about $500 million, the state has been able to manage the larger number of those requesting unemployment benefits, and DHS, Turner said, has begun preparing for continuing needs once the stimulus money has run out sometime during 2010.

“We have been used to serving the poor for a long time,” Turner said. “The poor are familiar with our programs and services. The working poor generally know how to get services when they need them.

“But, we have a new class of poor now that they call the SUV poor, the sport utility vehicle poor. These are people who have never been unemployed before, people who don’t know the system who don’t know how to get benefits and who cannot be served in the old way.”

Eligibility for DHS programs like food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and unemployment insurance benefits is based not only on income, but a person’s assets, Turner said.

“If you have a $50,000 CD in the bank, you have to cash it and spend it before you come to us,” he said. “What the SUV poor don’t understand now is we also count automobiles against you, life insurance policies, bass boats. All of the toys you have accumulated over the years now must be liquidated before you qualify for government programs.”

The Jefferson County DHS office employs about 140 people. Turner said on any given day, there is a large crowd in the office waiting room and a new way of handling a large workload is being developed.

He said the department is working toward creating an online system residents may use in the process of requesting and getting DHS services. The new system, Turner said, would essentially dissolve county lines within the system and residents would no longer be required to visit county offices to request services and submit paperwork.

DHS provides services related to investigation of senior citizen abuse, child abuse and neglect, adoption and foster care services, daycare licensing and inspection, Medicaid management, mental health and assistance for the blind among other services.

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