Tagged: Michigan Department of Human Services

The state kicked more than 500 people off food assistance and other welfare programs over the past 12 months because they won the Lottery.

But, a member of Governor Rick Snyder’s cabinet wants thousands more people be kicked off public assistance because of their Lottery winnings.

A new report says 14% of Lottery winners in Michigan live in a household where someone is on public assistance. There’s a law that requires the state to check the name of everyone who wins more than a thousand dollars against the rolls for many programs.

House and Senate plans for Department of Human Services differ

Republicans in the state Senate have approved a budget which would cut about 270 jobs from the Michigan Department of Human Services. This plan contrasts a more drastic budget cut passed by a House subcommittee yesterday which proposes eliminating more than 1,000 jobs from the agency. The Department of Human Services handles things like the state's child welfare, juvenile justice, and food assistance programs.

Governor Snyder hoping for a bipartisan solution to fixing state roads

Governor Rick Snyder is looking to Democrats to help design a bipartisan solution for fixing the state’s roads.

“Republicans control the House and Senate, but have not reached a consensus on how to raise the needed money. The governor says he’s asking Democrats as well as Republicans to put their ideas on the table in hopes of forging a deal,” Rick Pluta reports.

Disagreements over right-to-work sanctions

Sanctions for schools and colleges that ratified new union contracts were not included in state Senate budgets passed yesterday.

“Republicans in the state House want to punish schools for signing long-term contracts that would get around the state’s new right-to-work law. A Senate budget subcommittee on community colleges left the plan out of its recommendation,” reports Jake Neher.

As part of our State of Opportunity project, we’re following parents as they struggle to get off public assistance and make a better future for their children. This is an update on one of those families.

I first interviewed Keisha Johnson on a steamy summer day last June. Johnson, 25, grew up poor and is still poor to this day. But she has three reasons she wants to climb out poverty, and their names are Kaleb, Jurnee, and Alan, Jr.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A watchdog created by Michigan lawmakers to investigate child-welfare cases has no access to certain computers at the Department of Human Services.

An audit released Friday says the problem exists even eight years after creation of the Office of Children's Ombudsman. The ombudsman is an independent appointee with authority to investigate how the department handles child protection, foster care and juvenile justice.

The Department of Human Services says it doesn't have money to modify the computer system to give the ombudsman access. The agency is promising access in 2014.

Auditors say the ombudsman is supposed to see medical and mental health records as well as other documents. Verlie Ruffin has been ombudsman since 2006.

A Detroit state representative says a child’s death this week raises serious questions about Michigan’s child welfare system.

Rashida Tlaib is calling for an investigation after a nine-year-old girl died Sunday at the Martin Luther King apartments on the city's east side.

The girl was stabbed in the chest. The Wayne County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide, and police have sought an arrest warrant for her mother.

Applicants for cash assistance in Michigan will have to go through a new 21-day assessment.

The state Department of Human Services Wednesday said the program is meant to bolster applicants’ job prospects.

The PATH program will replace a less intensive job training program.

DHS spokesman Dave Akerly said many people can’t find or keep a job because they have trouble finding child care and transportation.