DHS Says It Saved for a Downturn

Governor Phil Bredesen has been sternly reminding departments that they must cut somewhere between 10 and 15 percent out of their budgets for the next fiscal year. But he got one piece of encouraging news yesterday.

When people lose their jobs, the state Department of Human Services helps them survive until they can find work again. In this economy, DHS is already assisting 18-thousand more households than last year through one program, Families First. That’s the federal welfare-to-work program.

But Commissioner Gina Lodge says DHS is prepared. A few years ago, her department began saving any federal money unspent in a given year.

“We have been saving that money to make sure we had enough to get us through one or maybe two years of a bad economy with a caseload growing without having to come back to the state for additional funds.”

DHS also administers over a billion dollars in food stamps for more than 440-thousand families.

WEB EXTRA:

DHS hit its highest caseload in the Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF), also known as the Families First program, in 2004 when 74,000 households were enrolled in the program. At the department’s budgeet hearaing yesterday, Lodge and department officials said they weren’t sure whether they expect to pass that mark if the economy worsens. They say enough rules have been changed within the program over the last few years regarding who is eligible, that they say their forecasting models are out-of-date. Currently, about 55,000 households are recieving TANF benefits.