State paying $390,000 a year in rent for Liberty Place call-center space [EBT, SNAP etc...]

Lancaster Online ^ | March 28, 2016 | Tim Mekeel

[kevcol]

The [PA] state Department of Human Services will pay about $390,000 a year to rent space in Liberty Place for its newly opened call center there, a state official said Monday.
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The call centers field calls from consumers seeking or receiving various types of public assistance. Consumers typically call to report changes in their address, income or household, to request replacement of EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards and to inquire about the status of an application for benefits.

[kevcol]

from a previous article (same source):

The state Department of Human Services on Friday opened a customer service call center in Liberty Place, creating 130 jobs.

The city facility, proposed two years ago on a larger scale, is the department's 10th customer service call center in the state.

Open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, the 13,600-square-foot call center can be reached at 877-395-8930.

Its staff, which includes bilingual caseworkers to handle calls from Spanish speaking clients, does not accept walk-ins.

In 2015, the department’s customer service call-center staff answered 1,949,655 calls statewide.

Doing the math....that's maybe 1,500 full time employees statewide, 10 facilities, $6 million a year in rent...to administer the EBT/SNAP program in PA. This won't be shocking to some of you, but it deserves mentioning.

[Vermont Lt]

I used to build call centers.

For a M-F, 9-5 call center, that’s pretty big. I guess if folks aren’t working, you don’t need all day/night staffing.

[SteveH]

what is SNAP?

[Safetgiver]

Don’t worry. Tommie the Commie will just tax something else.

[Safetgiver]

what is SNAP?...More welfare.

[JimRed]

Consumers typically call to report changes in their address, income or household, to request replacement of EBT (electronic benefits transfer) cards and to inquire about the status of an application for benefits.

Yeah, right; they're going to start reporting their off-the-books income when it increases...