INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's human services agency and its vendors have streamlined the eligibility process for food stamps and other welfare benefits in parts of the state by trimming the size of a paper application form and making changes in online operations.

The changes, among several that were promised by the Family and Social Services Administration in November, went into effect last week. They were announced in an e-mail message sent to the Voluntary Community Assistance Network, or V-CAN, a group of social service agencies that helps welfare clients apply for and receive benefits.

The changes are occurring only in the 59 counties where FSSA and a team of vendors led by IBM Corp. have “modernized” welfare intake with online applications, call centers, document imaging and other automation. The 59 counties have about one-third of the state's 1.2 million-person welfare caseload.

Besides the reduction of the size of paper applications from 16 pages to four, FSSA and the vendors made the following changes to online applications and benefit management:

♦Electronic signatures for online applications.

♦A five-page “Notice of Rights & Responsibilities” to beneficiaries has been reduced to a two-page summary that no longer requires a separate signature.

♦An online list of documents that the vendors have received over the previous six months.

♦Outside agencies that help clients can view a list of interview appointments scheduled over the following two weeks for their clients.

Lost documents and missed appointments are among the biggest complaints lodged by critics of the welfare modernization and privatization of eligibility intake to IBM, Affiliated Computer Services Inc. and other companies under a 10-year, $1.16 billion contract.

The complaints have prompted FSSA Secretary Anne Murphy to pause any further rollout of the automation to more counties until existing problems are fixed. Bills pending in the General Assembly would impose legislative fixes to the problems.

One of those bills, authored by Rep. Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville, has cleared both houses of the Legislature in different forms and is pending in a conference committee. It would require FSSA to get lawmaker approval for further rollouts.

Crouch said the changes announced last week should help applicants who are computer literate but provide little benefit to the elderly and disabled clients who aren't.

As part of the privatization, some 1,500 FSSA caseworkers were outsourced to Dallas-based ACS two years ago. Critics say the removal of individual caseworkers for households receiving benefits has been one of the biggest problems with the welfare changes.