Northwest Indiana Discussion

FSSA Asks for Suggestions for the New Welfare System

The Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) is requesting suggestions for the hybrid system being designed to deliver welfare services. FSSA encourages anyone who has worked with the old, caseworker system or the newer, modernized system to provide accounts of the experience and any recommendations that may have resulted. Suggestions may be sent via email: hybridinput@fssa.in.gov; or by mail to: ATTN: Hybrid Input; Family and Social Services Administration; 402 W. Washington Street, MS 25; Indianapolis, IN 46204.

"Suggestions from advocates, caseworkers, and especially clients will be the key to developing a hybrid system that works,” said FSSA Secretary Anne Murphy. “While we have learned many lessons from the flawed concepts of the modernized system, input from Hoosiers who use the system will provide fundamental insight going forward.”

On October 15, Governor Mitch Daniels announced the termination of the contract the State of Indiana held with IBM for the delivery of welfare services. In its place, FSSA will implement a hybrid system that will incorporate successful elements of the old welfare delivery system and what is known as the modernized system. The hybrid will include more face-to-face contact and more localized team-based case management.


Do You Need Help with Medicare Open Enrollment Choices?

SHIP is available to assist!
The State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) is a program of the Indiana Department of Insurance and funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. SHIP provides free impartial health insurance counseling to people with Medicare. We can help your clients determine the Medicare plans that best fit your health and/or prescription needs. Call 1-800-452-4800 for counseling assistance or visit www.medicare.in.gov. We can also provide on-site presentations.
Input Sought - Priorities for Children's Special Health Care Services

Please help the Maternal and Child Health and Children's Special Health Care Services at the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) determine what should be our highest priorities for the next several years by completing the new public input survey. It consists of a list of topics which you’ll divide into different groups based on the instructions Follow this link: www.in.gov/isdh/19577.htm, then please take a moment to look at the Survey and the Survey Instructions. Save the Survey and Instructions to your computer, then follow the instructions to fill it out and e-mail it back to us. Thank you again for your help in this important effort!- Indiana Department of Health
Dec 15, Free ADA-Audio Conference: Social Networking and Access

Social networking sites, like MySpace and Facebook, have tremendous potential for employers to outreach to people with disabilities. Employers need to be concerned about the use of such technologies in their business practices. Staff from the Job Accommodation Network (specialists in developing work accommodations for people with disabilities) will discuss the critical issues and how they can be addressed by employers.

The free audio conference will be held from 2:00-3:30 pm, Eastern time, in thirteen Indiana locations, including Bloomington, Columbus, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Gary, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Merrillville, Muncie, Richmond, Terre Haute, Vincennes, and West Lafayette.
For further details, contact Matt Norris 812-855-6508; email adainfo@indiana.edu; or visit the ADA-Indiana website at www.adaindiana.org
The audio conference series is co-sponsored by ADA-Indiana, the Governor’s Council for People with Disabilities, and the Great Lakes ADA Center.
AAPD Summer Internships in D.C. for Students with Disabilities

The American Association of People with Disabilities wants currently enrolled college students with disabilities for its Washington, D.C. internship programs. There are two programs: The MEAF-AAPD Congressional Internship, working in Congressional offices, and the Microsoft-AAPD Information Technology (IT) Internship, working in the IT divisions of federal government agencies. If you are interested in legislation or laptops, this is a unique opportunity! To apply for either of the AAPD Summer Internship Programs, visit http://www.aapd.com/AAPDInternship . If clicking the link does not work, copy and paste the link into your browser's address bar. Applications are due by January 8, 2010.

For more information, contact David Hale, Program Manager. Phone: 202-521-4305. Email: dhale@aapd.com.

Council E-News is designed to provide resources and information about disability issues that will educate and empower advocates to form their own views on issues and advocate according to their personal needs and those of their communities.

If you have comments or information to submit, contact Christine Dahlberg at cdahlberg@gpcpd.org.

Here's what you do:

January 1st. you send out letters stating that this year, and each successive year welfare will be reduced by 20%. In five years, it's gone, and those who have a will to survive, have the opportunity to get a job or die.

I believe it will happen and the labor markets will fill with cheap labor and America will thrive again with educated serfs of all races.

email


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Sat, Jun 23, 2011 10:35 am
Subject: Fw: A Texan's Answer to Welfare?]



Subject: FW: A Texan's Answer to Welfare?]


This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX Nov 18, 2010

Put me in charge . . .

Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for
Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans,
blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want
steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women
Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test
recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and
piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get
tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks?
You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your
"home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be
inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your
own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or
you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of
trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We
will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo
and speakers and put that money toward the “common good..”

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of
the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before
you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem,"
consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for
doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least
attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system
rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov’t subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes that is
correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will
voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov’t
welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

Now, if you have the guts - PASS IT ON...

I was thinking the same thing. Pick a date and say no new cases accepted. People survived over 150 years in this country, and hundreds of years before the country was established without government funded welfare. Families & churches provided the assistance to those in true need. Does it really make sense that welfare families enjoy the best free medical care and guaranteed living "assistance" that working stiffs do not enjoy? Looks at what the government pays out for poor people who only exist to draw assistance. Instead of investing this money in our best and brightest children the welfare kids get the backing but too seldom become success stories of any real measure. What a waste of money!

So eliminate welfare and use the savings to provide full free tuition to the best students. And for that matter we have way too many colleges teaching far too little of marketable value. We can cut out some colleges that specialize in granting diplomas for the sake of having a worthless diploma just to keep their overpaid professors from having to even show any real contribution to society or being a good teacher. Can you say time for merit pay and the elimination of tenure?

You gave me an idea! Change welfare as we know it to a 5 year max program with a 20% decrease in benefits each year but allow the recipient a generous threshold of income they may earn to wean off of the system. Given today's society that might be easier to get approved than a total ban and would provide a safety net without becoming a lifetime of dependence.