New Mexico Human Services denied food assistance to hungry families to meet deadlines

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Raw Story

New Mexico Human Services denied food assistance to hungry families to meet deadlines
David Edwards
01 May 2016 at 16:26 ET

Five New Mexico state workers admitted last week that they denied food assistance to needy families after being pressured by superiors.

According to KTRK, five workers at the state’s Human Services department told a federal court that they falsified records to claim that families applying for food assistance had more than $100 in assets

When the workers could not meet the seven-day deadline for processing emergency applications, they said that records were falsified to reject the requests.

“It makes the state’s numbers appear artificially high, as if they were processing things according to law,” New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty’s Sovereign Hager told KTRK. “When in fact, they aren’t.


Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/new-mexico-human-services-denied-food-assistance-to-hungry-families-to-meet-deadlines/

[Scruffy Rumbler]

1. It is already hard enough to go in and ask for assistance.

Then to be lied to by the very people that are supposed to be helping you? Disturbing and disgusting! Hope the supervisors are held accountable for their actions.

How many people went hungry or had other problems develop because of these people!

[gladium et scutum]

4. Gotta love the bureaucracy n/t

[cstanleytech]

7. If they were held accountable then they would be terminated and lose any benefits including

retirement ones that they might have had but they wont be.

[Akicita]

2. So they were willing to let children starve so their stats would not look bad?

I bet the Veteran Administration recruiters must be swarming New Mexico trying to hire these state workers.

[sarisataka]

3. Are these workers

And their supervisors facing fraud charges as would a family who lied about their assets?

[procon]

5. Coldblooded bastards!

What kind of psychopaths deny food to hungry people just to plump up their stats?

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. This cannot be an isolated case.

last couple weeks ago we read of Welfare workers who falsified child abuse records, which led to the death of a child.

Human Service agencies live and breathe by stats. They need numbers to increase or remain even to justify their annual budget.
Under that system, it becomes tempting to fudge numbers.

Appropriate oversight should have caught this "long time" problem.
sadly, said oversight is not common, in my experience.

[jpak]

8. kick

disgusting

[trc]

9. Should we not be asking

why these five workers could not meet their deadline? New Mexico is getting hammered by the drop in oil prices and the revenue loss that drop represents. There has probably been a drastic increase in the number of folks needing help and probably a budget cut in the department that oversees that need, I don't know, but maybe someone else out there does? And maybe how high up this directive originated.