GRAND FORKS — With a backlog of applications seeking assistance now considered manageable, the Grand Forks County Human Service Zone Advisory Board on Tuesday announced that eligibility workers are no longer required to work overtime.
Starting in June, employees for North Dakota's Economic Assistance program were required to work an extra eight to 12 hours per week to catch up on a large backlog of applications for food assistance, Medicaid, home energy and family costs. The mandatory overtime initiative ended statewide on Aug. 3. Cumulatively, it saw employees working roughly 13,000 hours of overtime in two months.
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Eligibility workers are those employees who provide assessment and eligibility determination of applications for a variety of programs, according to a recent job posting with the North Dakota Health and Human Services Department.
Economic assistance applications are supposed to be approved or denied within a 30-day window. The only exception would be for processing delays, according to Health and Human Services.
Tammy Knudson, director of the Grand Forks Human Service Zone, said the backlog is “pretty managed at this point."
“I think employees were glad it was done,” she said. “People did it and did a really good job.”
According to the minutes from the June meeting, “the backlog occurred due to decisions made at the state level that resulted in fewer hires in Economic Assistance.”
More employees have since been hired, and workers completed their overtime “with little complaining,” according to the minutes.
Knudson said the board will continue to monitor cases to prevent another backlog. If they start seeing issues again, she said they’ll look for volunteers to work overtime instead of requiring it.
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The board also discussed a bill to address the childcare assistance waiting list proposed by Sen. Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo, on Monday. Hogan's proposal was one of 20 suggested for the special legislative session called for Sept. 2 in Bismarck, but was not ultimately selected as one of the five bills that will be heard.
The Child Care Assistance Program can cover a portion of the costs of childcare for working families or those in education or training programs. It started a waitlist in December following a “rapid increase” in participation, according to North Dakota Health and Human Services.
Hogan's bill proposed adding $9 million in state funding to the department of health and human services to reduce the waitlist. According to testimony by Hogan, the bill would not have eliminated the waitlist, which included 1,634 families as of Aug. 5. It instead would have helped the lowest income families.
Sen. Jeff Barta, R-Grand Forks, believes legislators felt more time is needed to come up with a solution to address the waitlist.
“I don’t think there is any denial as to the need,” Barta said in the Tuesday meeting in Grand Forks.
Some board members seemed disappointed that the bill did not make it through.
“I know it’s a challenge for some of our families,” Knudson said. “We’ll look forward if that is addressed coming up in the (2027) legislative session.”
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In other news:
- Board member Doris Lebby officially resigned from the board in preparation for her upcoming mission work in Africa and the Caribbean with Youth With A Mission. The board will address filling her position during September's meeting.
- The board has nearly finished creating two interview rooms to address previous safety concerns , including reports from Human Service Zone workers of multiple encounters with aggressive clients. The interview rooms, which will give staff a space to meet with clients outside of their personal offices, are part of a larger safety initiative being pursued in the county.
- The board heard an update from Children and Family Services. That office has seen a consistent number of cases recently. There are currently 103 open child protection cases. The board expects this to increase significantly in about a month after school starts.
- Job vacancies with the zone have slowed down, according to Knudson. The zone is hiring a support specialist, and Child Protective Services has three openings.
- Heard an update about Human Service Zone state leadership. Gov. Kelly Armstrong appointed Conner Swanson to lead the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services on Aug. 13.
- The board continues to address the payment error rate in which clients receive more or fewer benefits than they are entitled to. Knudson said they are trying to reduce the payment error rate locally by offering interview training with eligibility workers. They will also randomly select cases to find errors and identify trends.