Rice County Review: Social Services Changes, Redistricting Maps

After months of , the Rice County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday made a move toward providing better consistency in processing the county's social services cases.

The board hired a consultant to help assess the situation, manage the project and select a computer system to help speed up the process, according to the Faribault Daily News. The total cost should be around $500,000, with $30-33,000 of that paying for the consultant. 

Some county residents reported they waited up to five months to receive food andhealth benefits.

At a meeting , Mark Shaw, Rice County Social Services director, said the caseload increase had been overwhelming.

“We’ve seen sizable growth (in requests),” he said. “It’s not always an easy process.”

According to Rice County records, food support cases have increased from 997 in December 2007 to 1,654 (3,500 recipients) in February 2012. For health care, cases increased from 916 in December 2007 to 3,925 (6,623 recipients) in November 2011, and family cash program cases increased from 72 in December 2007 to 310 (879 recipients) in November 2011.

Overall, the department’s caseload more than tripled from 2,117 cases four years ago to nearly 6,500 in 2012, according to county records.

For March, Shaw brought in temporary staff to help get caught up. Each Saturday, 10 contracted financial workers were brought in to process cases. Those workers were in addition to four temporary staffers brought on to help address mail processing, two full-time permanent financial workers and four Minnesota Department of Human Services staff to provide temporary assistance with case processing, he said.

Year

Social Services Expenditures

Percent of County Budget

24

Be sure to follow Northfield Patch on Twitter, "Like" us on Facebook, and sign up for our newsletters, which send you updates about stories, breaking news, announcements, events and blogs on our site.