Human Services Commissioner Gwendolyn L. Harris officially opened a customer service hotline for New Jersey's Food Stamps and welfare clients in Camden, replacing a call center that operated overseas for the past 15 months.

Commissioner Harris and Cheryl Campbell, vice president for government solutions at eFunds Corp., cut the ribbon on the Camden call center and toured the office, which will employ about a dozen area residents.

I am proud that New Jersey is the first state to move its call center, and the employment opportunity that it provides, back into this economy, Commissioner Harris. We realize that the trend in that industry is to move these jobs overseas. But I could not, in good conscience, run a welfare system that requires people to work while engaging in business practices that eliminate the kinds of jobs they need to begin striving for self-sufficiency.

The new call center began operating two weeks ago as part of the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system, which serves roughly 200,000 New Jersey households that receive Food Stamps or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), the federal welfare program for adults with dependent children.

Each client is issued a Families First card similar to an ATM card to access their benefits. The DHS Division of Family Development hired eFunds in 1997 to administer the EBT system. The company is under contract until August 2004. Its duties include maintaining a client database, issuing benefits, processing transactions, resolving account disputes, and operating the call center.

Originally located in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the call center moved to India in February 2002.

Shortly after the move, Commissioner Harris directed the DFD which oversees TANF and Food Stamps to negotiate with eFunds to move the call center back to this country. Eventually, the two sides agreed to locate the office in Camden, one of New Jerseys most financially distressed cities.

The call center employs two experienced supervisors and nine new workers who were referred to eFunds by the Camden County Improvement Authority.

These are people who were looking for employment right here in Camden County, and I am gratified that my department and our contractor were able to provide them this opportunity, Commissioner Harris said.

Under its contract, eFunds is paid monthly on a per-case basis to administer the EBT system. At the current caseload, the company would have received about $340,000 per month. To cover the cost of the new Camden center, the state will pay an extra 36.9 cents per case or $73,800 monthly.

It will cost slightly more to do this, yet we gladly invest this money to create jobs here," Commissioner Harris said. "The cost of maintaining people on welfare and providing job training is considerable, and we derive a greater benefit by giving people opportunities for gainful employment.

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