The state’s family welfare program plans to eliminate 14 job counselor positions.
The Department for Children and Families has contracts with 53 job counselors who serve participants in the Reach Up program, and Commissioner Dave Yacavone says that’s more than they need.
DCF gives a $1.2 million grant to the Department of Labor to employ the 14 counselors. Shumlin administration officials told lawmakers last week that they will pull half of the money at the end of fiscal year 2013, and the elimination of the funds will result in eight layoffs. In the following year, all 14 of the Labor positions would be eliminated.
Department of Labor Commissioner Annie Noonan said she is hopeful she can rehire the laid-off employees within the department.
“We are working with them to get them reabsorbed in other vacancies within the Department of Labor,” Noonan said. “That’s our goal. These are folks that are very well-trained in our work. I think they will be very adaptable to other positions within the department.”
DCF plans to reinvest the money to hire substance abuse and mental health counselors for the Reach Up program.
The decision comes on the heels of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s plan to cut the welfare-to-work program by $6 million in fiscal year 2014. Under the governor’s proposal, more than 1,000 welfare recipients will be cut off. The House of Representatives rejected the governor’s proposed Reach Up reduction last month. It’s unclear, at this point, where the Senate stands on the issue.
According to Cassandra Magliozzi, legislative specialist for the Vermont State Employees Association, the job counselors who are losing their jobs are more effective than their counterparts, and caseloads for counselors are too high. Under the terms of the contract between the Department for Children and Families and the Department of Labor, counselors are supposed to have a maximum of 35 clients. According to the VSEA, counselors employed by the Department of Labor often serve between 40 and 60 people.
In a statement, the state workers’ union said, “VDOL Reach-Up Case Managers get more Vermonters back to work, and VDOL Reach Up Case Managers are more effective than their private contractor counterparts at helping program participants find unsubsidized, competitive employment. The VDOL Reach-Up proposed layoffs will hurt program participants who are trying to move off of state benefits and get back to work.”
Christopher Curtis, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid and an outspoken critic of the Shumlin administration’s proposal to cap Reach Up benefits, also has concerns about the impact of the layoffs.
“Losing specialists who help these people get to work is going to have a really negative effect on families who are doing their best to find employment,” Curtis said, adding that layoffs could leave already overburdened counselors picking up the slack.
Yacavone is confident the layoffs won’t harm the program. “I wouldn’t do this if I felt it was going to injure our program or diminish it in any way.”
Yacavone said it’s misleading to look at counselor-to-client ratios because DCF uses a “teaming” model, meaning that Reach Up beneficiaries are sometimes served by multiple counselors.