To handle an increase in case work, Montezuma County Department of Social Services will hire a new child protection aide and a second benefits fraud investigator.
Director Gina Montoya was granted approval for the two new full-time employees by the Board of County Commissioners.
Benefit fraud has increased in the county in the last two years, she said. Social services has one investigator and a backlog of 109 cases.
The additional fraud investigator will be responsible for investigations and collections of funds gained from fraudulent claims.
“Fraud investigations take a lot of time, and the increase has created more of a backlog because we only have one person,” Montoya said. She added that recovered money goes back into state coffers.
“It doesn’t do any good to investigate the fraud if there is no collection,” said Commissioner Joel Stevenson in support of the additional staff member.
Fraud claims are reviewed by a state administrative law judge, which holds hearings for Montezuma County cases four or five times per month, according to Social Services.
If the judge rules the claim is fraud and not household error, the person is required to pay back the benefits, but there has been a lack of staff for collections, Montoya said.
The additional child services aide is needed to handle court requirements for supervised parent visitation of children under Social Services programs.
Cases requiring the visitation service have gone up nearly 100%, Montoya said, from 12 last year to 23 this year.
Another child protection staffer is “needed because the courts are ordering more visitation between parents and children,” she said. Staff is struggling to keep up with the court orders of three to five visitations per week while also handling daily case work.
The courts have increased supervised visitation because of social science that shows infants and young children benefit from more frequent visitation from parents, said county attorney Ian MacLaren.
The salary for the fraud investigator is $50,000, and a child protection aide pays $39,000. The state pays for 80% of the salary, and the county pays 20%. The money is available in the Social Services budget, Montoya said.
Child abuse cases have increased in Montezuma County since 2010, and occur at a higher rate than the state average.
According to the most recent Kids Count data, in 2019 Montezuma County reported 18.9 substantiated cases of child abuse per 1,000 children, while the statewide average was 9.7 cases per 1,000 children.
In 2010, Montezuma County reported 8.9 cases of child abuse per 1,000 children, according to Kids Count data.
The District Attorney’s office handled 53 cases involving crimes against children in 2020, down from 64 cases in 2019, according to data released by the county.
jmimiaga@the-journal.com
