King William County social-services staff shortages leave agency scrambling to meet caseloads and state rules

King William County social-services staff told the county advisory board in April that chronic vacancies, heavy caseloads and state-controlled hiring and pay rules have left the local Department of Social Services struggling to keep up with renewals, appeals and child-welfare paperwork.

The issue matters because the agency’s capacity affects benefit access, timely Medicaid and EBT issuance, and eligibility for state funding; board members warned that prolonged staffing shortfalls risk noncompliance and unplanned local costs.

At the meeting, Benefits Unit Supervisor Candice Carey said the office is operating with fewer experienced workers than needed and that the shortage has produced a case-processing backlog. “We are in desperate need of experienced workers here in the agency,” Carey said, citing training gaps, high appeal volumes tied to the end of the federal public-health emergency and a limited number of experienced staff to process complex cases.

Carey told the board that three experienced benefit-processing staff currently handle roughly 200 cases each per month and that emergency workers — temporary staff brought in from other localities — process about 35 to 50 cases per month but are limited to no more than 25 hours a week. The meeting record shows benefits-unit staff processed…