Hamilton County best in Midwest
at food stamp accuracy
Aug. 21, 2009 -- Hamilton County’s Department of Job and Family Services recently received an award for achieving the highest payment accuracy rate in food stamps among the fourteen largest urban counties in a six-state region of the Midwest.

Hamilton County’s accuracy rate of 98.19 percent in Federal Fiscal year 2008 was the best of the largest counties in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota.

The rate was a more than 6 percent improvement over 2007’s 91.71 percent rate. Hamilton County issues more than $11 million in food assistance payments each month. Currently, 104,000 county residents – one in eight – receive food stamps.

This is the third time the agency has received awards from the BIG TEN Conference in the past 10 years. The BIG TEN is a federal, state and local effort in the Midwest Region of the Food and Nutrition Service to improve Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) payment accuracy and customer service.

Food stamp accuracy is important because it ensures taxpayer money is spent appropriately, it ensures people who need help get the right amount and it helps determine an agency’s funding to carry out public assistance programs. Federal officials will penalize or reward financially based on an agency’s accuracy rate.

"We attribute this success to staff who work hard and take pride in performing their jobs to the best of their ability," said Moira Weir, director of the Department of Job and Family Services. "This is about paying attention to detail, conducting thorough interviews and checking and re-checking to make sure you have it right."

Child Support workshop educates attorneys about proposed changes
Aug. 5, 2009 -- About 70 attorneys learned about proposed Ohio Child Support Guideline changes in a workshop sponsored by the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services.

The county also honored Jeff Startzman as the annual Child Support Hero and gave Lifetime Achievement awards to Doreen Snodgrass and Cynthia Lohstroh at the event, held in conjunction with Child Support Awareness Month. See video of Child Support Hero presentation  (YouTube)

Workshop panelists included Dan Cade of Hamilton County Child Support, Rod Hamilton of Warren County CSEA and Carri Brown and Dave Fleischman of the Office of Child Support at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. All served on a panel that conducted a four-year review of the state's child support guidelines.

Previous winners of the Child Support Hero award were: Magistrate Dave Kelley (2005), Sheriff Simon Leis (2006), former Recorder Rebecca Prem Groppe (2007) and GRADS coordinator Sue Garten (2008).