A controversial plan to make sure Missouri isn’t awarding welfare benefits to unqualified people remains in limbo more than a year after getting underway.
At least two botched state contracts worth millions of dollars are partly to blame for delays in bringing the long-sought welfare verification program online.
Rep. Marsha Haefner, an Oakville Republican, said she is tired of waiting for the Missouri Department of Social Services to work through the problems that have kept the potentially money-saving program from moving forward.
“If it’s the last thing I do as a legislator, I want to get that program working,” said Haefner, who will leave the House after four terms in 2018.
Last year, the Legislature approved a proposal requiring the Department of Social Services to contract with a company that would verify whether Missourians are eligible for Medicaid, child care subsidies and food stamps.
Former Gov. Jay Nixon did not sign the measure, leaving it to become law a year ago without his blessing.
Supporters say the plan could save as much as $25 million by 2019 if the company finds scofflaws or deceased people who are receiving benefits. The law is patterned after a similar one in Illinois that removed about 120,000 people from the welfare rolls.
Not all of the savings could be used for other state programs. For example, aid currently spent on needy families would have to be spent on similar programs, such as one designed to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
Currently, the state reviews eligibility for various aid programs once a year. The proposal would require monthly checks.
Opponents said the plan could leave some people who qualify temporarily without benefits if the database is flawed.
A contract, however, was never awarded after a losing bidder challenged the bidding process. The state put implementation on hold while it reviewed the progress on a system designed to serve as a one-stop shop for welfare benefits that also has faced problems.
Installation of that system was launched in 2013, but the company that won the original bid was fired two years later. Engagepoint was paid $50.1 million of a possible $147 million before being set loose for installing a system that the state said fell short of expectations.