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Clark County families receiving aid increase

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By Bridgette Outten, Staff Writer 5:46 PM Monday, November 2, 2009

SPRINGFIELD — The number of families in Clark County receiving cash assistance and food stamps continues to climb, according to quarterly statistics released from Job and Family Services of Clark County Monday, Nov. 2.

From June to September of this year, there was a 6 percent increase in individuals receiving cash assistance; a 2.4 percent increase in individuals receiving food stamps and a 2.2 percent increase of individuals on Medicaid.

The numbers didn’t surprise JFS Director Bob Suver.

“I think these numbers are right in line with what we’ve been seeing,” he said. “We could even see them get a little worse.”

The number of individuals utilizing the county’s job assistance program has also increased by nearly 16 percent, a reflection of county’s unemployment rate.

JFS has had an ongoing issue of increasing clients with shrinking staff. A $1.5 million budget deficit led to 33 layoffs and other cutbacks to save money.

Suver said his staff was able to catch up with the mounting number of cases through recent nightly and weekend overtime.

“A lot of the layoffs were people who handled customer service and phone calls,” Suver said.

After the layoffs, clients were seeing phone calls returned as many as five or six days later, he added.

But being able to catch up with the caseload is “a positive thing,” he said. “Now we’re able to return phone calls within a day or two of receiving them.”

Not all of JFS numbers have increased, though. There was a 16 percent decrease in the number of children under JFS protection who still live in their own homes; a 9 percent decrease in children under JFS protection in the agency’s custody; a nearly 2 percent in child care subsidies and a nearly 5 percent decrease in the number of individuals paying child support orders.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0374 or boutten@coxohio.com.