Because of continual efforts from many agency employees, the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services will save thousands of dollars per year when it comes to Child Care vouchers. 

Starting Aug. 2, the HCJFS Child Care vouchers underwent significant changes for cost and confidentiality reasons:  

• Previously, individual vouchers were mailed in separate envelopes to consumers. Now, up to eight vouchers for one consumer will be mailed in a single envelope – significantly reducing the mailing cost.
• Instead of a three-part carbonless form, the voucher is now a single 8 ½ X 11 sheet of paper divided by perforations into three sections -– again, a significant cost reduction. Copy A is returned to HCJFS; Copy B is kept by the provider and Copy C is for the consumer to keep.
• Due to confidentiality issues, the Social Security number of the child has been removed from the voucher and only the last four digits of the provider’s Social Security number will appear on the document.

“The major cost savings for this project is the postage,” said Steve Lonski, system programmer in Information Systems. “Every two weeks, approximately 18,000 vouchers are now printed on a laser printer rather than an impact printer. The actual voucher form can be changed on an as-needed basis whereas before they were on pre-printed forms that were ordered in large quantities.” 

The Child Care staff now use quieter, more efficient printers to print individual vouchers.  

“The agency is no longer reliant on a bursting machine to prepare bulk printed vouchers for envelope insertion,” said Lonski, who worked on the project with Scott Kirby, senior computer operator in Information Systems. “There were considerable problems getting the vouchers to consumers in a timely manner when that piece of equipment malfunctioned, since there was a very small window available from print time to mail time.”  

Lonski said the initial cost savings in material and postage is estimated at $85,000 to $95,000. 

“But there are other savings as well, such as maintenance on the bursting machine and time involved in reprinting lost vouchers that has not yet been measured,” he added.  

The project not only benefits the agency, but the consumers, too. 

“Hopefully, the mail delivery will be more reliable since there will be fewer sent,” Lonski said. “And, personal information (Social Security numbers) has been removed from the vouchers.” 

Many employees were essential in making this project a success. 

“There were many involved over the course of the last eight months,” Lonski said. “Suffice to say that without the continual efforts of personnel in Child Care, Fiscal, Information Systems and Contracting, this project would never have been completed.”