Bladen County Commissioners listened as DSS officials discussed fraud, Foster Care and funding cuts from the state.
Vickie Smith, DSS Director, presented a request for an updated DSS Fraud Policy, but, according to her, the issues at DSS are huge and growing… and in many different areas of services provided by the department.
Smith said there are Fraud Claims totaling $641,493.13 outstanding at the local agency. Specifically, $96,000 in local money, but the largest portion is in federal dollars. She explained the dilemma. The prospects of bringing the guilty parties to court are dim. The DA’s office has told her department that they should only bring cases that are in excess of $10,000 to their office. None qualify. The local DSS office has been told they can intercept tax refunds, but few even file tax forms. Bladen County DSS has one investigator to deal with all programs including Food Stamps, child abuse, filing false statements and more. State offices have decreased the amount of funding to local DSS offices.
Another serious problem for the agency is Foster Care. One problem is a huge increase in the number of children in the program. There are 59 children in the program now that range in age from 7 months to 17 year olds. A 7 month old child is in protective custody after suffering from shaking in the home and a 17 year old’s mom cannot provide a safe environment for her son.
The number of children in need of foster care has “exploded” recently, according to Smith, not just in Bladen County, but across the state. Many children have been determined to be in need of therapeutic services which are much more expensive, (some that cost up to $2,000 a month).
Smith said some children were being born into “bad” homes.
Adoptions are down, according to the DSS Director.
The department carries our state mandates, with growing problems and shrinking state funds.
State guidelines indicate each foster care professional should have no more than 18 children. Bladen County has 2 workers and 59 children, that includes a family of seven that arrived this week.
The agency had 13 children in foster care in 2013, 44 in December 2014, and 59 in January 2015.
Smith is asking for help, and at least one more foster care employee.
Commissioners were surprised at the growth of the situation and frustrated at the cut in state funds to cover what was, in the past, the state’s share of the cost. It was also noted that another fraud investigator was needed.
Smith said DSS had already spent more money dealing with the issue in the first 6 months of this year than was spent all last fiscal year.
Chairman Charles Ray Peterson asked the board to table the request and set a time for a special meeting to attempt to deal with the situation. The motion was approved. The meeting is to be held soon.
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