PHOTO/FRAN TOBIN
CHICAGO — The Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Illinois Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) cannot serve its constituents with their new, broken computer system (IES). Documents are lost, people are cut off unjustly from the food stamp program (SNAP), from Medicaid health care, from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and people do not have an assigned case worker to follow through with their cases. There are insufficient, trained workers to serve DHS and DRS, and the IES system crashes daily, which causes backlogs, waiting times, and public health issues at the service offices.
In November 2017, the IES system terminated SNAP benefits for more than 40,000 households. Initially, the state blamed the people for not filing on time, however, the system’s insufficient bandwidth cause the delay to handle all the beneficiaries’ filings.
In March, 2018, Blocks Together and The Alliance for Community Services held a “Community Speak Out! Stop cuts to SNAP and Medicaid” at the YMCA in Humboldt Park, Chicago. Legislators invited were State Senator Patricia Van Pelt, State Representative Melissa Conyears-Ervin, State Senator Omar Aquino, and State Senator Julie Morrison who promised to send representatives to the town hall. Their table remained empty.
We were there, though, and filled the room: persons with disabilities, persons who are hungry, persons who are poor, persons with mental illness symptoms, persons who are on kidney dialysis, persons who are homecare personal assistants, single-payer health care advocates, and equally, were the workers themselves who testified about the nightmare that the IES imposes upon them every day.
All participants agreed that this system illegally removes benefits, services without assigned case workers are unmanageable, waiting times can sometimes last up to eight hours because of system crashes, and some state workers desire to deliver services and cannot because of the broken IES system and an insufficient number of staff.
Kathy Powers is a lifetime Chicagoan. At 50, Kathy speaks out as the voice of the people. She became a revolutionary activist whose lifelong fight raises unheard voices. She is the Health Care Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board.
