Bureaucracy as a money-saving choke point

One money saving technique organizations use is to create a choke point in their bureaucracy in places where their customers might cost them money. Examples that leap immediately to mind are claims processing for insurers and customer service telephone centers — particularly where one of the services might be for customers wishing to cancel a subscription.

The State of Indiana is not blind to this money saving approach. Angela Mapes Turner, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette has an article on Indiana’s slow processing speed for approving food stamp requests.

During the final quarter of 2008, Indiana’s welfare agency failed to process almost a third of food stamp applications within its goal of two months, falling short of federal guidelines and leaving thousands of Hoosiers waiting for help.

The Family and Social Services Administration blamed its slow processing times on growing pains, an increased volume of food stamp applications and possible client errors.

But advocates for an overhaul of the welfare system say the delays extend beyond food stamps to other benefits and show modernization isn’t working.

My suspicion is that this slow response time is not a but, it’s a feature. Speediness in getting money out the door probably isn’t seen as a virtue. If you can’t beat them on the merits, screw ’em with procedure.

Cases are sometimes delayed because clients do not turn in paperwork on time, not because of agency tardiness. Barlow said that’s one reason why the state sticks with its 60-day authorization period, to allow clients more time.
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“I’ve faxed things to them that they’re requesting. I know I’ve turned it in, but they’re saying that I didn’t,” she said. “It’s just thoroughly frustrating.”

Gill, 38, received one denial letter saying she had missed a phone appointment. She was told she was denied because she missed paperwork deadlines. Then she received another denial, saying she and her husband earned slightly more than the allowable maximum income.

Meanwhile, she was burning through minutes on her pay-as-you-go cell phone with the state’s welfare call center.

“It was such a process. I didn’t feel like an individual,” she said.