General Assistance requests are down countywide

MT. PLEASANT — The Henry County general assistance coordinator Sarah Berndt told the Henry County supervisors Thursday that the general assistance office has received less requests during the last six months of the fiscal year than they did in the first six months.

Berndt attributed this change to COVID-19 relief funds that we’re distributed around that time.

During the last six months they had four contacts that they couldn’t help due to county income requirements.

“On the back end of COVID we have seen half of the requests that we saw during the first six months,” Berndt said.

During her report, Berndt told the supervisors that if they raised their income requirements to 50-55% of the federal poverty guidelines they could have helped four more people than they did. This would require $2,100 dollars from the county budget.