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Wichita program lauded by US Treasury

Representative Payee Program recognized for tax help

By Melodie Woerman

Editor, The Harvest

The Representative Payee Program at Episcopal Social Services in Wichita has been honored by the U.S. Treasury Department for its effectiveness. The federal agency cited the program’s tax help for its clients as a model program.

Donna Mills, coordinator for the ESS program, said the Treasury Department was most interested in her program’s efforts to help clients file for tax benefits, such as the federal earned income tax credit, homestead exemptions and food sales tax credit, especially when those people did not know they qualified for them.

Mills said in 2004, ESS volunteers helped clients file tax returns and found  more than $39,000 in refunds as a result.

She said the Internal Revenue Service in Wichita recommended her program for inclusion in the Treasury Department’s list of best practices that give examples that address challenges and solutions that build economic empowerment. The agency’s efforts to collaborate with other organizations on behalf of clients also were cited in making the recognition.

The payee program provides help to people receiving Social Security checks who are unable to handle their own finances. Federal law requires some people to have assistance in managing their funds and making sure their bills are paid.

Mills said about 85 percent of ESS’s payee clients suffer from some form of mental illness. Their average monthly income is about $580.

ESS offers assistance to more than 250 people at its Wichita headquarters and in satellite offices at St. Matthew’s, Newton; Trinity, Arkansas City and Grace, Winfield.

Mills said the ESS payee programs are the largest in the state of Kansas and are the only ones that do not charge a fee.

The payee program at St. Matthew’s, Newton recently received a $1,000 grant from the national Jubilee office to support its work.

ESS in Wichita and the Newton program are among seven Jubilee Centers in the diocese. That designation by the national church recognizes agencies that serve the poor through Episcopal ministry.