Welfare Cases Increase in Pr. George's; County Is Only Jurisdiction In Md. to Show Rise in 1997
While welfare cases in Maryland continue to decline dramatically, the caseload in Prince George's County increased by more than 800 people during the first four months of this year, according to state figures.</br></br>Prince George's, which has the second-largest caseload in Maryland, has lagged far behind the state in reducing its rolls and was Maryland's only jurisdiction to show an increase so far this year. Since January 1995, Maryland has cut its statewide caseload by 30 percent, while Prince George's has shown a 16 percent reduction, to 27,300 welfare recipients. Baltimore has reduced its caseload by 25,000 people, or 24 percent, despite a higher unemployment rate.</br></br>Kim Rhim, a consultant hired by Prince George's to review the training of caseworkers and managers, said many workers do not understand the new welfare policies, communicate seldom with managers and have not been trained to perform their new duty of helping people find jobs.</br></br>"Employees said that things are changing so quickly that they sometimes get information from the clients," said Rhim, executive director of Training Source Inc., which also does training and job placement. "The average employee is frustrated, overworked and overwhelmed. A lot of {caseworkers} are processing people as though welfare will be around forever."</br></br>Rhim said management must make more of an effort to talk directly to employees about changes, instead of passing along written information -- without explanation -- about new policies. And Rhim said employees need immediate training on how to steer potential welfare recipients into jobs. "The newest part of their job is to talk about jobs, and they don't know how to do it," she said. "As a result, some employees are doing business as usual."