A rocky rollout to a sound plan

Editorial by Jacksonville Daily News, September 16, 2013.

The system dubbed “NC FAST” hasn’t lived up to its name yet. And while state and local officials insist that the bugs are slowly but surely being worked out, that assurance doesn’t put food on the table of people who need it.

NC FAST eventually is supposed to provide social services clients with a one-stop application for food stamps, Medicaid, Work First and child care subsidies, among other services. The state has long attempted to merge the processes with the goal of speeding up, not slowing down, eligibility.

Although officials at the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services touted the rollout with great fanfare, early results have been disappointing. Delays have been common both because of software glitches and intake workers’ learning curve.

And this is a dicey part of the year for those needing assistance. Increased demand and a decrease in donations during the summer months, however, have seen food supplies and donations thin out among area charitable organizations.

For families in limbo while their food stamp applications are being approved, those organizations are a lifeline. The individuals and organizations that run the nonprofit programs are to be commended for their continued commitment to helping ensure that children and adults don’t go hungry.

Back to the not-so-fast NC FAST. DHHS officials insist that they’re correcting problems that have created the delays. There is no question that the system is needed. County social services departments have long asked to streamline the application process for public assistance programs into one all-purpose system instead of a series of unconnected networks that are ancient by computer standards.

When (if?) state and county social services agencies are able to get the system working, it should benefit both public-assistance recipients and taxpayers.

In the interim, the growing pains have withheld food from needy families. Half of North Carolina’s 1.7 million food stamp recipients are children under 18. More than 16 percent of North Carolinians live below the poverty line; many others struggle with incomes hovering just above poverty.

DHHS is providing computer support and is hiring 160 temporary workers to help counties out, but those workers must be trained first.

There’s really no turning back, but state officials must do what is necessary to ensure that bumps in the rollout don’t leave families in the lurch.

This editorial first appeared in Wilmington’s StarNews, a Halifax Media Group newspaper.