Missouri welfare hot line calls go to India

Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2002 9:31 PM

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I recently sent out a newsletter with a story that Alabama was outsourcing
food stamp services. Even the same company is routing the phone calls,
Scottsdale, Arizona based eFunds Corp.

Like the previous article no mention is made of the dangers of sharing the
personal information of private citizens with a foreign country. Welfare
forms contain all the information that crooks and terrorists need.

http://newstribune.com/stories/101602/sta_1016020924.asp

Wednesday, October 16, 2002

Missouri welfare hot line calls go to India

The Associated Press

Missourians who call a toll-free number with questions about their food
stamps or welfare benefits are receiving help from customer service
representatives in India.

Yes, the country of India -- about 8,000 miles away from Missouri on the
opposite side of the world.

The contractor that handles Missouri's electronic benefit cards switched its
call center earlier this year from the United States to India.

But by that time, it was too late to request a Missouri-based call center as
part of a new five-year contract that begins in February 2003, Janel Luck,
deputy director of the state Division of Family Services, said Tuesday.

So the phones will continue to ring in India.

"To me, it's a conflicting message. We try to keep businesses from leaving
Missouri, and then when have the opportunity, we contract with somebody in
India," said state Rep. Charlie Shields, R-St. Joseph, who has written to
the Department of Social Services complaining about the situation.

Shields wants the department to review the use of the India call center and,
ultimately, to use a Missouri-based call center.

The state could have asked for cost estimates on in-state and out-of-state
customer call centers in its request for proposals that was written about a
year ago, Luck said. But at the time, the India call center had not become
an issue, she said.

Subsequently, the state awarded the contract -- valued at around $6 million
annually -- to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based eFunds Corp., the same company that
switched the call center to India earlier this year as a subcontractor. The
contract is for five years, with the option of extending it to seven years.

Now, "as long as they provide the service we're paying them for and they're
providing it in a fashion that's acceptable, we can't really say where it
should be located," Luck said.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Bob Holden said he was unaware that the calls of
Missouri welfare recipients were being routed to India. But spokeswoman Mary
Still said she did not now if the governor was concerned about that.

Besides the letter from Shields, the Social Services Department has received
only a few complaints about the India call center, none of which came from
welfare recipients, Luck said.

When The Associated Press called the toll-free number Tuesday, customer
service representatives spoke English that was fairly easy to understand. A
manager confirmed the office was located in India, but declined to provide
the specific city, saying it was against company policy.

On its Internet site, eFunds says it has four offices in India -- two in
Chennai and one each in Gurgaon and Mumbai. The company also has offices in
Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Missouri has been using debit cards since June 1997 to distribute its food
stamp benefits and monthly cash payments to welfare recipients, Luck said.

People can use the cards at most retailers in the same way they would use a
credit card or a debit card.

About 220,000 Missouri households receive food stamps. About 47,000
households receive cash payments through the state's welfare program. Many
of those who receive cash payments also receive food stamps, Luck said.

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