But beyond the doors of the waiting room is a high-tech agency. There, workers process applications for welfare benefits, track recipients, query policy rules, prepare correspondence, issue electronic benefits transfer cards and scan fingerprints using desktop PCs on a local area network. Later this spring, DTA workers in Springfield and around the state will begin using the agency's much-anticipated Beacon system -- a multi-tiered, client/server application that marks the culmination of welfare reform automation in Massachusetts.
When Beacon is fully deployed, the state will shut down its aging mainframe computers. That legacy system epitomizes welfare technology throughout the country, where the average existing system is more than 7 years old, according to a survey conducted last year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Congress. With Beacon's deployment, however, Massachusetts will move well ahead of most states, which are still in the preplanning and planning stages of acquiring the necessary systems capability for mandatory TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) programs.
"We have already put the infrastructure in place so that we can deploy a fleet of strategic systems that can respond to the [welfare] changes that we knew were going to happen," explained Jim Reen, DTA deputy commissioner for information systems. "Beacon, as it rolls out, will be a further manifestation of our ability to respond to the new requirements. We don't feel we could have done that, given our existing system."
Up-to-date technology will be key to making welfare reform succeed, according to experts. "Information systems are the spinal columns
of welfare modernization," wrote Richard Nathan of the Rockefeller Institute, in his report, The Newest New Federalism for Welfare. "It is a critical instrument if the country is serious about shifting from a regulatory mode to a performance approach in this field of public policy."
Along with these new responsibilities, DTA caseworkers also have to ensure applicants meet strict new federal requirements for eligibility and, more importantly, they must track recipients over time. In Massachusetts, welfare benefits last only 24 months -- far short of the more liberal federal limitation of 60 months. To do all that takes new technology, Maio said in explaining the state's huge investment in welfare technology.
Right now, much of that investment is going toward the deployment of Beacon, which will assist caseworkers with determining eligibility, benefits coverage and program availability for welfare recipients. Already, field offices, such as the one on Liberty Street in Springfield, are feeling the pinch. Their servers and PCs are 3 years old. New programs lead to new databases, which take up room on hard drives already full of data. New applications require more memory to run on desktop PCs. And most importantly, a new system, such as Beacon, will require extensive new training for workers. The question of where the resources will come from to maintain such a distributed technology infrastructure has yet to be answered in Massachusetts and other states.
TODAY'S TOOLS
Welfare automation is big business. Between 1984 and 1992 -- the latest year figures are available -- total federal expenditures for state information systems across all public assistance programs were $5.8 billion, according to a 1994 study by the General Accounting Office. In 1996 alone, 46 states spent nearly $200 million on developing and maintaining existing welfare information systems, according to the HHS survey for Congress.
Now states must prepare to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to transform their systems from processing entitlements to generating results in the form of jobs. Welfare reform has allowed each state to craft its own solution to finding jobs for the poor, and that includes trying different approaches to automating welfare. While the number of new or updated systems capable of handling the TANF requirements is still small -- 15 months is the average amount of time to change a system, according to HHS -- a few approaches have emerged.
In Wisconsin, automation is aimed at supporting job centers around the state. Montana is banking on the Internet as the infrastructure for providing recipients access to services across the enormous state. Perhaps the most interesting approach came from Texas, which tried -- and was rebuffed by HHS -- to contract out the entire development and maintenance of their welfare information system.
Massachusetts' TANF caseload -- 92,000 in 1996 -- is considered midsize. After Boston, Springfield is one of the state's largest offices, with close to 9,000 TANF and food stamp cases under its care. Every caseworker's desktop has a PC -- a total of 106 -- networked to one server. The office's LAN is connected to a frame relay wide area network that serves the entire state.
With each caseworker handling as many as 150 cases at one time, PCs make the difference between good and mediocre service, according to Orlando Isaza, director of the Springfield office. "Our workers can keep on top of recipients whose benefits are about to run out. They can generate letters alerting the clients to the situation and keep track of appointments. The computer has become an important monitoring tool for us."
What has helped make that possible is PRISM (Priority Reporting Integrated System Match) -- DTA's first client/server application. PRISM is a tracking system that helps caseworkers juggle the various requirements that recipients must meet while they are on welfare, including monitoring any changes to their income. With PRISM, workers can create their own databases, including mailing lists, so letters can be sent out quickly to notify clients of any changes to their benefits.
With the PC network, caseworkers also have access to Policy Online -- an electronic policy and procedures manual. DTA's Maio described it as a significant worker efficiency tool. Not only is Policy Online electronically updated, but workers can quickly find pertinent information through keyword searches.
Other PC-based tools rolling out include job search stations that recipients can use to browse the Internet for jobs (this is in addition to formal career counseling and other job-related services) and workstations for producing electronic benefits transfer (EBT) debit cards. The state has issued cards to 140,000 food stamp recipients, 50,000 case assistance clients and provides cash benefits through electronic funds transfer to another 30,000 people.
ACCEPTING REJECTION
The young mother places her index finger on the scanner, while the caseworker watches the image appear on her computer monitor. When the fingerprint is properly aligned within the registration marks on the screen, she clicks her mouse and waits for the finger image to be accepted by the system's database. Seconds pass and finally a message appears, saying the print has been rejected. Small cut marks on the young woman's finger break up the image, making it difficult for the computer to capture a clean image. The process is repeated again and again. Each time, the print is rejected. Finally, the caseworker tries to scan a print from the woman's other hand.
Springfield, where the mother and every welfare applicant must have their index fingers scanned, is one of three sites in Massachusetts testing biometric identification technology. Thanks to lower cost and higher performance PCs, this application has become widely available and many states are rolling it out. Massachusetts still hasn't decided what technology it will use to identify welfare recipients. And as Springfield is finding out, the PC-based technology is not fool-proof.
Angela Arbelaze, systems coordinator for the Springfield office in western Massachusetts, understands the promise and limitation of PC solutions as well as anybody. She knows that identification systems require a lot of horsepower to work effectively in a busy office, such as Springfield's. She also knows her office needs high-speed PCs with lots of RAM to operate digital scanners and cameras for identifying welfare recipients. "You need money to buy the kind of computers that can capture images for EBT cards and identification systems," she said.
Arbelaze is also worried about her server. It's 3 years old, filling up with data and maxing out from the demands of the new applications. Finding state money for Pentium servers and desktop PCs as well as RAM, even at today's rock bottom prices, won't be easy, however. Resources are limited for DTA, despite the flush economic times. Springfield's request for a new server has been turned down, because funds are needed to complete the deployment of Beacon.
States have to pay for new systems, such as Beacon, in order to meet the requirements of welfare reform. According to the American Public Welfare Association, states are expected to spend nearly $1.1 billion to design and build systems that automate the TANF program. While states now receive welfare funds in the form of block grants, they face a 15-percent cap on administrative costs. Expenses for computer systems are exempted, but any additional funds spent on automation mean fewer dollars available for program benefits.
While Arbelaze worries about her server, Jim Reen is concerned about the cost and complexity of integrating the state's welfare system with legacy systems in the state's employment agency. Finding jobs for recipients and weeding out the ineligible from welfare rolls is the mantra for today, and that requires sharing data in ways never done before.
"It has become very difficult to integrate the different legacy systems that are in place throughout the agency," remarked Reen. "Ultimately, we expect to resolve these problems but will continue to experience problems interfacing with other agencies. A lot is happening. Folks are making changes to their databases, the year-2000 issue is a distraction. We've got a number of ongoing challenges."
May Table of Contents
