AG 1997 01 21 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

SINGLE APPLICATION This award recognizes staff of our Department of Social Services who developed a public assistance single application process. This process combines what had been five separate State public assistance applications. The process developed has increased staff productivity greatly by decreasing paperwork. The five separate applications had contained 52 pages of data gathering materials. The process developed by Cabarrus staff reduced this to 14 pages. The Public Assistance Single Application produced a documented $154,054 in savings in 1994-95, its f'zrst complete year of use at the Depmhnent. This process has served as a cornerstone in the cost containment efforts which have permitted the Department to submit County budget requests which have decreased County costs for administration of required programs four of the past five years. It has pemfitted the Department to reassign staff to the Work Over Welfare Program, CAP Program, child protective services, and automation support where additional staff have been needed, without adding additional positions to the County payroll. It has served as the basis for the Cabarrus Automated Single Application Program. The Public Assistance Single Application developed by Cabarms County staff was adopted by the State of North Carolina for use by counties. At last count, some 52 counties were using it. It was a central component in the cost containment package which won recognition for the County as a Ketner Employee Productivity Award winner for 1995. It also garnered the North Carolina Division of Social Services Most Innovative Project Award for 1996. Developing a single application process to reduce the mountainous paperwork required in Federal and State assistance programs was something everyone in North Carolina's social services system had recognized for years to be a serious need. County commissioners here and across the State had expressed concern with the rising cost of public assistance programs and their administration. Wlfile a single application had been seen as a need, many at the State and county levels probably felt it was an impossibly large task. If any had tried, none had succeeded in developing a single application until the Cabarms staff committed themselves to the task. What Cabarrus .County's staff did in developing the Public Assistance Single Application is remarkable. It has provided one of the essential ingredients, needed in welfare reform: simplification to produce cost savings. It has brought much distinction to Cabarms County.