AUGUSTA – The letter from the Department of Human Services was intended to make her aware of food stamp requirements, but all it did was make her mad.
“I found it condescending, insulting and threatening,” said the woman, pointing out that the note implied she needed an incentive to look for a job and warned that she could lose her benefits if she didn’t show up for an appointment.
“I often felt that DHS assumed that people who were receiving any type of public assistance were stupid and probably lazy, but that one letter was the clincher,” said the woman, a college graduate who works full time while raising three children.
The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, isn’t the only one who believes that DHS needs an attitude adjustment.
The Maine Association of Interdependent Neighborhoods – a statewide coalition for low-income people – plans Wednesday, Oct. 11, to protest what they perceive as disrespectful and dehumanizing treatment by some caseworkers toward people who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other benefits.
The state has approximately 11,000 TANF households headed mostly by women who are required to participate in the ASPIRE program. The ASPIRE program provides short-term educational and occupational training or employment opportunities.
Less than 1,000 residents are involved in the Parents As Scholars program, in which they attend a two- or four-year postsecondary school while receiving the same benefits as TANF recipients.
During the demonstration, which will take place from noon to 1 p.m. at Capitol Park in Augusta, MAIN also will make other requests of DHS.
Those include reducing caseworkers’ caseloads; requiring caseworkers to accept participants’ job and school preferences; ensuring that caseworkers have consistent training in participants’ rights and responsibilities and in available support services; informing participants about “good cause,” or what DHS sees as acceptable reasons for not fulfilling their contractual obligations; and determining if there is a legitimate “good cause” before imposing punishment.
Protesters also want to abolish what they deem a demeaning form that requires an assessment of whether a participant is appropriately dressed and groomed. In addition, they want DHS to provide a clearly written handbook that includes complete information on the programs.
People are having trouble getting their benefits, MAIN president Judy Guay said last week.
Tired and overburdened caseworkers don’t always take time to consider every option open to an individual and don’t look at the reasons why someone may not be able to meet program requirements, according to Guay.
“Some workers are really wonderful – we’re not saying fire all your caseworkers,” she said. “We’re saying everyone deserves an equal chance to be treated with dignity and respect. We don’t believe people should have to fight to get the support services they need. We believe [the services] are there, and should be given to them. We don’t want a handout – we want a hand up.”
This isn’t the first time that MAIN has challenged the status quo, according to Guay. She said the 1,700-member group voiced many of the same complaints to DHS officials a couple of years ago.
“They listened and said they were appalled, that they didn’t realize the problem was that bad,” she said.
“Since then, some changes have been made, they have worked with us on some things, and I want to give them credit for this,” said Guay. “But there’s still so much more to do, and we feel like we’re treading water and nothing’s happening.”
MAIN’s take on the situation has baffled Judy Williams, director of the DHS Bureau of Family Independence.
“I’m at a loss for words,” said Williams. “We have been working with them, and based on their recommendations we have done some things to meet their concerns.”
Last summer, the staff underwent training to ensure they are offering consistent information, she said.
New pamphlets and a revamped orientation tape that will be out next week offer complete information on services, staff and recipient responsibilities, and what constitutes “good cause,” Williams said.
If a participant is unhappy with a caseworker or has questions about services, he or she should contact a supervisor, according to the bureau director.
“We certainly have the expectation that the staff treat people with dignity and respect,” Williams said. “But we have a process by which we try to resolve issues, and it’s very important that the client stay in contact with the department to resolve those issues.”
Williams said an expectation is placed on clients as to what activities they’ll perform, and what services the department will provide to enhance those activities.
“It’s a two-way responsibility and both parties need to comply. Certainly if the client doesn’t comply there are consequences. But if something has happened in someone’s life that they can’t perform an activity as part of a contract, they should notify someone.”
MAIN may not get every change it has requested. The department has no intention of reducing caseloads, according to Williams, who said Commissioner Kevin Concannon “believes the caseloads are workable right now.
“While some people need more assistance than others, every recipient doesn’t need contact on a daily basis,” Williams said.
Caseworkers also cannot always accept participants’ job preferences, according to Williams. “They may want to go into a work environment that’s already overloaded, or the labor market may not have the demand, so we need to mesh their expectations with job potential,” she said.
On a positive note, the department already is “looking into” eliminating the review of a recipient’s appearance, said Williams.
Both critics and DHS officials point out that Maine has been involved with some of the most compassionate welfare reform in the country.
“DHS and the state have an enormous amount to be proud of,” said Mary Henderson, an attorney with the Maine Equal Justice Project who represents MAIN.
Several years ago, when Congress withdrew support for providing higher education opportunities to those on public assistance, Maine created the Parents as Scholars program.
And while other states instituted time limits for those receiving public benefits, Maine has decreed that “if you’re playing by the rules and doing the best you can, we won’t cut you off,” Henderson said
Another indication of the state’s sympathetic bent is that Maine legislators voted last session to extend health coverage to working poor families, according to the Augusta attorney.
Maine has taken a reasonable approach to welfare reform, said Williams, noting that a person may continue to collect benefits until he or she is earning enough to transition off assistance.
“Your first job may not be your last job, so we try to help you get a job to improve your skills and go on developing your career,” said the bureau director.
But advocates for low-income people criticized the department, saying it pushes people into minimum wage jobs that don’t allow them to earn enough money to support their families.
In the rush to get them off public assistance, people feel that their “aspirations and desires to get ahead in life aren’t always respected,” said Henderson.
DHS measures success by looking at the number of people who no longer receive help, instead of at whether a family has been lifted out of poverty, according to Guay.
“Lots of them are going without healthcare because they’re trying to survive on minimum wage jobs,” she said.
While some MAIN members plan on meeting with Commissioner Concannon today to ask for his support, the group views the upcoming demonstration as the most effective means to evoke change.
MAIN will publicly issue the state a challenge to take the next step in compassionate welfare reform, said Henderson.
“What we’re asking now is for the department to help change a culture, an environment and an attitude – to break through old stereotypes and to respect, encourage and support these mostly single parents who, through grit and determination, are working to get their families out of poverty,” she said.
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