[Nfbmo] FSD Meeting

[Eugene S. Coulter]

Greetings, 
Gary Wunder and I met with officials of the Family Support Division on Friday November 15. I was surprised to be greeted by a former co-worker from my days as a caseworker in the Boone County office, Heather Atkins, along with two other persons from the Program and Policy Unit regarding Blind Pension and S.A.B. problems.
It was a very good meeting as we explained the difficulties. Here is the upshot:
First, they told us they are already working on the problems that are particular to the Kansas City area. This is a claim I  believe is true as calls from that region have dropped off in the last couple of weeks.
Second, they will take steps to change the title of the annual review so clients know it is for the blind programs. However, this might not happen in the current computer system as a new system is coming up in January and the blind programs come on line in January  of 2015.
Then they gave Gary and myself  contact information to  talk with someone in authority if a severe problem arises again.
Next the agreed that a letter will be sent to all recipients  explaining  in plain language the procedures required to keep their blind pension.  The best part of this is that I will create the initial draft of the letter and then they will  edit and correct it to meet legal requirements.
And finally, most importantly, they will work on setting up a dedicated phone number for blind recipients to call with problems with their cases. Whoever answers the phone will be a caseworker or someone with the ability to actually take action on a person’s case  including granting extensions in some cases. This is a far cry from the current phone center that basically only takes messages.
I think that is it in a nutshell. Gary can add whatever I left out. I believe this is as close to a touchdown as we could have expected!!!
Gene Coulter