By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Groups watching out for the homebound say the Rauner administration is going about saving money the wrong way.

David Spurney of Staunton is confined to a wheelchair and has autonomic dysflexia. His caregiver “is my lifeline in more ways than one. She provides services that people in her line of work often do.”

The problem is, rules implemented last year cap his caregiver’s hours at 45 per week. His state senator, Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) pointed out, he’s disabled 168 hours per week and isn’t in a great position to recruit a second caregiver to small-town Southern Illinois.

Aide Tami Straub, who has taken Spurney into her home and who has been with him 27 years, says the staet has done a 180 in terms of service.

“The counselors (previously said) ‘Are your needs being met?’ ‘What can we do for you?’” Straub said. “Now, there’s nothing. There is no help in trying to fill out their paperwork. It’s lengthy. It doesn’t have any explanation. You’d have to see it to believe it.”

Sen. Manar, a regular critic of the Rauner administration on this matter, brushed aside a suggestion this could be a pre-election press pop, saying Spurney wanted to have the news conference a month ago, but a hospital stay intervened.

DHS issued the following statement:

Over 16,000 new caregivers have been hired since the rule went into effect. 98.8% of caregivers are working within the overtime rule. No caregiver has been suspended. We have received 775 requests for overtime exceptions and 61% percent of those were approved and 21% were denied. Other requests are pending or were withdrawn.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]