EXCERPT FROM: Foster's Daily Democrat
By Conor Makem
ROCHESTER — Lori Metivier-McBride has been living on pins and needles since December. For the past year and a half, she has received state assistance for day care for her 21⁄2 year old daughter, Olivia. But state cuts to day care tuition aid, coupled with what she says was a Department of Health and Human Services error have put into doubt her daughter's day care future.
"The taxpayers need to know that the state is forcing working parents to go back into the welfare system instead of just helping with a portion of child care," she said.
Her trouble began in November 2009 when she was assigned a new case worker from DHHS. According to the Metivier-McBride, she had sent in her recertification paperwork and was told that she still needed to provide a copy of her lease agreement and proof of a closed checking account. She called DHHS and, according to Metivier-McBride, was told that she had 10 days from the due date to get the required paperwork in.
But a notice she received at the beginning of December told her otherwise. It said that because the paperwork hadn't been filed in time her case had been closed, and she was placed on the state's waiting list. According to Metivier-McBride, it became a "he-said, she-said" issue.
She applied for a reinstatement hearing, which is slated for May 11, and DHHS agreed to continue her assistance until the hearing. But her co-pay jumped from $54 to $68 to $84 a week. And if her reinstatement fails, she will owe all of the assistance she is now receiving back to the state. in addition, she would then need to pay full tuition rates, which she notes, would be between $185 and $195 a week, a bill she could not afford.
Metivier-McBride is hoping for the best, but fears that if her reinstatement is not accepted, she will need to quit her job at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital and apply for welfare so that she can take care of Olivia.