New Dane County System Helps Economic Assistance Recipients Report Changes

August 04, 2003
David W Carlson, Communications Manager, Dane County Human Services, (608) 242-6424
County Executive

Saves Time and Money in Administration of Programs Individuals who receive Food Stamps, Medical Assistance, child care assistance or W-2 payments from the Dane County Human Services Department are finding it easier to report changes in information that are required for them to receive their benefits. Greater efficiency in handling the required reporting is saving money in the face of fewer dollars for administration of economic assistance programs, including W-2. The human services department has created a new Change Reporting Center which customers can access by dialing 242-7500 to report changes to their cases such as address, employment, expense or income changes and changes in who’s living in the home. “In the past, people who received assistance from us, and their case workers, might have spent a lot of time leaving and retrieving messages or playing phone tag to convey a simple change in information,” said Falk. “Now case workers can focus their time on doing more complex work and leave the process of handling changes in basic information to a smaller group of workers dedicated to that purpose.” The change report center was started with financial assistance from the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services using money intended to reduce errors in the handling of Food Stamp cases. So far the Dane County change report center has handled more than 10,000 calls resulting in approximately 4,000 case changes. “This initiative is helping us to more efficiently handle our economic assistance cases in the face of dwindling funds from the State to support the county’s administration of these activities,” said Falk. The State of Wisconsin is also encouraging other counties to start up change report centers like the one in Dane County or contract with Dane or Milwaukee County, which also has a change report center, for these services. Dane County annually handles approximately 13,000 Food Stamp, Medical Assistance, Child Care and W-2 cases. ###