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1:07

Deb Etheridge

124:48 - 125:56

“we have— yes, we have 2 areas in which we've been able to increase staff. The legislature appropriated or funded 15 eligibility technician positions that we've put forward, and we have operationalized a virtual contact center”
Speaker
Deb Etheridge
Community
Alaska News
Location
Anchorage
Captured at

From the transcript

Through the Chair, Representative, we have— yes, we have 2 areas in which we've been able to increase staff. The legislature appropriated or funded 15 eligibility technician positions that we've put forward, and we have operationalized a virtual contact center to really provide that direct service on the phone with, with merited staff. And then we also have those non-merit staff, the contracted staff, and we have a non-merit demonstration waiver through the Food Nutrition Assistance Administration and those non-merit staff, which is our, our contracted staff. We have high-quality reviews through them, and we've been able to increase the staffing and access and operationalize more case processing for SNAP. And then that actually takes a lot of burden off of our eligibility technicians to look at other programs and really support all the programs that the Division of Public Assistance administers.