Service Delivery Barriers Restrict Access to Income Supports

Nearly half a million working families in Illinois, or 12.5 percent of the population, live at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty line ($23,505 for a family of three). In recent years, Illinois has been successful at maintaining and expanding various income support programs to assist the working poor—such as child care, food stamps, medical assistance programs including KidCare and FamilyCare, and TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) cash assistance. Despite these successes, problems with the local service delivery system continue to impose massive barriers that unfairly restrict access, leave programs underutilized, and burden the state with inefficient processes.

Based on the assumption that low-income persons are not employed, many of the policies and procedures in place at Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS) local offices are outdated and do not reflect the current realities of the working poor population. Also, business practices at local IDHS offices are crippled by the shortage of staff and the lack of efficient technology. As a result, eligible working persons and their families are prevented or delayed from receiving support.

Barriers to income support programs impede the progress of Illinois’s working poor as well as the prosperity of Illinois families. Communities and our state as a whole also suffer when these barriers prevent full utilization of available financial resources. For example, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that every $5 spent on food stamps has an economic impact equal to $9 in the community through additional spending and job creation.

Two bills currently before the Illinois General Assembly, H.B. 1375 and H.B. 2373, address these barriers to help ensure that Illinois’s human services delivery system is operating in a way that maximizes efficiency and available resources to deliver services effectively.

• H.B. 1375 offers solutions that build on existing systems and infrastructure, both within the local office and by leveraging the relationships that community-based organizations (CBOs) have with the working poor. It would create a multiyear process for the establishment of partnerships between IDHS and CBOs to initiate outreach and application assistance with IDHS eligible clients. H.B. 1375 would also streamline eligibility documentation requirements across many public benefit programs.
• H.B. 2373 addresses simplification of policy and procedure at IDHS local offices to take advantage of the flexibility allowed under federal law. Some simplification provisions included in the bill: annual food stamp redetermination for clients with earned income; streamlined application, redetermination, and documentation requirements; implementation of a “no wrong door” policy where cases would be handled at the IDHS local office most convenient for the client; and a process to develop streamlined income counting rules across benefit programs.

Ensuring access and utilization of income support programs will enable the working poor to maintain employment and make the transition out of poverty possible.