Topics Related to Social Service

PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is returning control of child welfare services to the Nash County Department of Social Services, effective today. NCDHHS temporarily assumed leadership in September 2023. Since then, the state and county worked collaboratively to stabilize and improve child welfare services and ensure appropriate standards.

PRESS RELEASE — The Transylvania County Department of Social Services and Sherriff’s Office, along with staff from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, have been conducting investigations of Trails Carolina following the death of a child on Feb. 3, 2024.

PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services distributed funds this week to county departments of social services to help improve placements for children in DSS custody who have complex behavioral health needs. These critical funds come at a time when an average of 32 children are living in DSS offices each week because there is no place for them to go that is appropriate for their care.

PRESS RELEASE — The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will host a live fireside chat and tele-town hall Wednesday, Jan. 10, from 6 to 7 p.m., to discuss Medicaid expansion, including impacts on rural communities, who is newly eligible and ways to apply for health care coverage.

MEDIA ADVISORY — North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody H. Kinsley is visiting the Harnett County Department of Social Services on Monday, Nov. 20, to announce a new initiative that provides payment to relatives and family members who step in to care for children in need. The kinship care reimbursement payments are a vital resource that will support positive outcomes for children and families and encourage more people to become kinship care providers.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced it has received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to operate the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program during the 2022-23 school year.

In North Carolina and nationally, emergency allotments for COVID-19 in the Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) program will end in March 2023. Households that have been receiving extra FNS benefits (called "emergency allotments") each month since March 2020 or after will see a reduction in benefits because of a federal change that ends emergency allotments for all states.

Moore County residents who receive Food and Nutrition Services and lost food due to power outages from vandalism to an electrical substation on Dec. 3, 2022, will receive replacement benefits, thanks to two waivers approved by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Older adults and people with disabilities can now apply for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Low Income Energy Assistance Program. The state began accepting applications from this group of residents on Dec. 1.

It will now be easier for parents to pay child support payments. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services today announced payments can now be accepted through Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo and PayPal, by credit card or debit card via phone at 1-855-702-2268, as well as by cash or debit card at local Walmart stores.