The Delaware Department of Health and Social Services is a behemoth in Delaware government. The governor’s new budget proposal would spend $1.4 billion dollars on running the department in the coming fiscal year that starts July 1.
But in recent budget hearings, DHSS secretary Molly Magarik told lawmakers the department is struggling with record high vacancies.
Like many other employers, job vacancies worsened for DHSS during the pandemic. Prior to the start of the pandemic, there were about 500 vacancies in the department. That nearly doubled amid Covid-19.
The budget includes $10 million to reimburse providers caring for children from low-income families, and $12 million to make more families eligible for subsidized care.
Out of 4,000 total positions, more than 900 are currently unfilled. That’s more than 20 percent of all DHSS jobs.
“We still continue to have record high vacancies,” Magarik told members of the Joint Finance Committee in Dover “Really, our vacancy rate keeps going up and across the department.”
She said while nearly 23 percent of all positions across DHSS are unfilled, in some parts of the department that number is as high as 50 to 60 percent.
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