Peninsula: Welfare recipients get holiday surprise

Imagine retiring at 12 years old or owning your first car when you are only 4 years old.

Some residents in Clallam and Jefferson counties received letters to that effect the past two weeks, thanks to glitches in an updated computer program used by the state Department of Social and Health Services to calculate welfare, medical care and food stamp benefits.

“There are some problems that we are working on. Clients who receive these letters should contact their local office,” said Rob St. John, Director of Information Technology for Social and Health Services in Olympia.

The problem is a glitch in an update to a computer program, St. John said. It was not caused by a hacker.

Calls started coming in after Nov. 19, the day the upgrade came online.

Some letters erroneously told people benefits were being cut off.

The rest of this story appears in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.

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