U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett is going to make an announcement today with respect to charges against Family and Social Services Administration employees alleging their involvement in “large scale theft.”
I’ve never been impressed with FSSA. A lot of that stems from first impressions when I was trying to help a state senator secure then-FSSA chief Kathy Davis’ testimony for a commission on autism hearing. It wasn’t so much that she didn’t agree to come testify. It was the utter lack of responsiveness from her office. I was left with the impression that if I, with a law degree and the General Assembly at my back, could not get a response; someone with little means and a great need probably had no hope at all.
But, I don’t know a thing about the charges Hogsett will be alleging, so my impression of FSSA as an organization might be a complete aside if the charges are tangential or completely unrelated to the services provided by FSSA. The nature of those services likely make it a place ripe for abuse. A lot of money involved. The people served are generally powerless. The benefits derived from the services are hard to measure. So, if a chunk of money gets diverted one way or another, it might be more difficult to notice or care about than money diverted from other areas.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Joe Hogsett is alleging.
Update According to Zach Myers, writing for Fox59, three FSSA employees are accused of using information from TANF recipients to create bogus debit cards and either use them to withdraw cash or sell to third parties. They are accused of stealing $191,103.
Your instincts are right. Though the crimes announced a little while ago by Hogsett are relatively small, this agency is way too big and totally unresponsive. It’s instructive to note that the agency was created in the 1990’s by then Governor Evan Bayh — one more instance of the utter failings of this man – both as a Governor and Senator. If the Daniels administration were smart, they would take a look at restructuring this agency (along with the DWD) and making it smaller and more efficient.
It is my understanding that Daniels has increased the size of the DWD and his appointees have overseen one of the largest period of benefit overpayment and mismanagement in the nation.
“If the Daniels Administration were smart”.
No hope of that ever happening.
No one is regulating the State employee’s. While everyone wants to blame privatization, the private company has made improvements. The improvements be snail speed as the be, are still more than the State has done in 15 years. If Mitch Daniels would get out of bed with every Tom, Dick, and Harry he might find qualified managers that could actually make this the most accurate and best run welfare system in the country. Need watchers for the so called watchers.
Joe – A restructure at DWD should not be necessary unless the governor’s people remove themselves from the situation first – they are the ones who have caused the problems since they came into office in 2005.
Paddy – Very true. The DWD “Leadership Team” has increased from 3 to 8 commissioners/deputy commissioners during this administration. They all make good money for their jobs – and at least one position was specifically created (in 2009) for Mitch Daniels’ 2004 campaign policy director, Gina DelSanto where she earns over $90,000 a year (and no one seems to fully understand what she does).
Regarding unemployment: then-commissioner Ron Stiver gave unemployment claims deputies (adjudicators) 1 week to either move to Indianapolis (from anywhere they were located in the state including Gary or Evansville), retire, or be out of a job in July 2005. The deputy numbers dropped drastically (and hundreds of combined years experience were lost forever), which saved money initially. But here’s the rub: ever since, DWD has leaked money like crazy. There are now nearly double the number of claims deputies as in 2005 (an estimated 75% or more with less than 2 years’ experience handling unemployed caseloads theoretically requiring extensive understanding of UI law), there are many more administrative law judges than before (and the trend is to have them in Indianapolis instead of doing hearings in person, which reduces the chance of catching liars), and a huge core of experienced claims deputies are either working on the 3 years overdue (and $12+ Million over-budget modernization program) or are retiring by the week.
The modernization (called UIM), besides so far being a failure, has more-than-likely increased the number of paperwork sent to claimants and businesses (it was supposed to be a more “paperless” system), which increases overhead costs for paper, printing, and postage. The increased (and usually wrong) paperwork sent-out leads to confusion for claimants and businesses, which has necessitated a need for increasing the “Call Center” staffing (who make $5-7,000 more starting than the claims deputies who make the decisions. The Call Center staff, though many are well-intentioned, do not usually know UI, and thus confuse claimants and businesses further, which adds to more work for claims deputies and other staff. The wrong or excessive paperwork sent-out leads to bad decisions being made
The bad decisions being made by claims deputies are caused by the bad paperwork, lack of proper (or good) training in law or quality, and the push by DWD Leadership (who are pushed by the governor’s office) to make the “customers” happy by issuing (or canceling) decisions quickly without proper investigation. Claimants who deserve UI are being denied while claimants who do not deserve UI are being paid – money which will not easily (and many times, never be) recovered.
Indiana’s DWD, since late 2007 (right after the UIM was partially-implemented for claims deputies to use), has consistently scored low in quarterly audits of randomly-selected unemployment determinations (whether a claimant is allowed or denied). Since 2009, Indiana has scored in the 20-40% range (lowest in U.S.) each quarter (as late as 2005, Indiana was passing with over 85% as required by the U.S. DOL). That means an estimated 60-80% of the determinations to allow or deny benefits are WRONG.
Governor Daniels is fully aware of the problems as advised by many key sources, yet he has continued to let this low-level of performance to exist. I have previously written about how Indiana has overpaid claimants over $1 Billion from 2006-2009 (3rd worst in the country) – well, the information above is mostly why these overpayment amounts are so bad.
When will someone end what my friends call the “Reign of Error”? It sure won’t happen during the Daniels Administration because they are the ones who started it all.
Louis said:
“Governor Daniels is fully aware of the problems as advised by many key sources, yet he has continued to let this low-level of performance to exist. I have previously written about how Indiana has overpaid claimants over $1 Billion from 2006-2009 (3rd worst in the country) – well, the information above is mostly why these overpayment amounts are so bad.”
This is my number one complaint with Governor Daniels, who I for the most part like a lot. He just doesn’t pay enough attention to what’s going on in the agencies under his watch. Repeatedly he’s been told of problems in agencies and nothing gets corrected until there is a major crisis or the problems end up on the front page. I know the Govenror wouldn’t be involved in the day-to-day operations of his agencies, but he needs to have better people keeping a closer eye on what’s going on. Ultimately the buck stops at his desk.
I don’t think efficiency was ever really the goal. You have programs you dislike or at least to which you are indifferent — unemployment, social services, or other programs that primarily benefit the poor. You have big pots of government money spent on those services. You have friends and well-wishers who would like to have that money. So, you “privatize.”