Cost of problem-plagued computer that administers welfare soars to $294 million
NDP, Conservatives blame Liberals for 'ongoing failure' of Social Assistance Management System
Social Assistance Minister Helena Jacek said another $23 millionwas added after the government implemented recommendations from aPricewaterhouseCoopers report, which called for more training forfrontline staff who work with recipients.
The additional costs include $15.7 million to hire more IT staffat the ministry and to train social assistance case workers whocomplained the SAMS program was too complicated and too timeconsuming for them to use.
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Social assistance system fix will cost Ontario, but no one knows how much
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Social assistance software a headache for city staff, clients
"They have really done a wonderful job and we've been listeningto them, and they're finding the situation stable, they can rely onit," said Jacek.
"They're being relieved of some of the manual tasks they had todo in terms of calculation of benefits and so on."
The original tab for the problem-plagued computer systemdeveloped by IBM was $242 million, but it kept growing as problemsarose with cheques sent to clients.
The province also had to give municipalities an additional $10million to cover overtime pay for staff who were dealing with upsetrecipients$20 million in overpayments last December
Case workers more comfortable with system
More than seven million cheques have now been issued properly,and the case workers in municipalities are much more comfortablewith the system, added Jacek.