The State of Alaska Service Center has advised us of continuing, intermittent service interruptions impacting State WAN services. These intermittent interruptions are affecting various State Agencies. State of Alaska and ACS Technicians are currently working on the problem. The State of Alaska Service Center will update this outage notification when additional information regarding the cause or duration is received.
Do you know if a person who is exempt from food stamp work requirements due to receiving unemployment benefits may be disqualified - if they fail to comply with a work requirement by the unemployment program? Can the certification period be extended under special circumstances? Are utility expenses paid by an excluded member allowed in full? Take our New Food Stamp Challenge and put your knowledge to the test!
I want to thank those of you who answered the food stamp accuracy survey. Your response was overwhelming! 154 responses were received. That amounts to nearly one third of our total statewide staff. State elections should have that kind of a turnout! When you consider that many of our staff have no direct involvement in eligibility determination or the food stamp program, this is an amazing response rate.
Here are a couple of e-mail responses to the request for suggestions on how to improve the Food Stamp accuracy rate.
E-mail #1
Hello Director Lombardo-
I think your letter was appropriate and correct. As an Eligibility Tech. III in the Coastal unit I have had the opportunity to review several of our Elig. Tech's cases.
Mary Lorence of Juneau began her new position this month in Anchorage and has more than 19 years of experience in delivering services to children and their families. "We
Anchorage, Alaska, July 24 - Some 7,000 elderly Alaskans have already applied for help from a new state program. The Senior Assistance Program will pay seniors $120 a month for 10 months.
With the current number of applicants, the program will cost the state $8.4 million.
July 24, 2003 - The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. board has approved a pilot program to make home ownership more accessible to low-income Alaskans with disabilities. The Anchorage-based state housing agency manages more than 4,000 Housing Choice Vouchers statewide that help low-income Alaskans with their rent. The pilot program allocates 10 rental vouchers instead to the agency's HCV Homeownership program, letting people with special housing needs due to disabilities use the voucher payments as mortgage payments, AHFC said.
Note: This program has expired.
Our first star is a resident of Anchorage. He has worked for our agency for 20 years, in numerous positions and many different offices. Regarded by friends and co-workers as someone you can always count on, upbeat, respectful and courteous. Co-workers have described him as the "heart" of his unit. Accuracy is an important element to this star's work and he is described as someone who is up to the challenge with policy knowledge that is exemplary and a work ethic that is thorough and diligent. He is very family and community oriented and enjoys fundraising. Can you guess who this star is?
Strong Child Care Services continue as department restructures: Mary Lorence named DHSS Childcare Manager
The Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) today announced $5,290,514 in child care grants to communities and organizations throughout Alaska that provide services to children. The awards are administered by the Child Care Assistance Program, which recently moved from the Department of Education and Early Development to the Division of Public Assistance as part of a large DHSS reorganization for efficiency and better customer service.
Elderly Alaskans on very low incomes should find it easy to collect $120 a month through a new program. The aid is intended to ease the pain of Gov. Frank Murkowski's elimination of the immensely popular Longevity Bonus Program.
The ease of applying for the money carries a potential cost. The program won't be fraud-proof, state officials say.
No interview is required. No documentation of income. No visit to the welfare office. The program will operate in part on trust.