INDIANAPOLIS -- Lawmakers evaluating the privatization of Indiana's welfare enrollment heard nearly opposite assessments of how it's going: Human services chief Mitch Roob praised it, and advocates said it's hurting needy Hoosiers.

Judging by the lawmakers' comments Tuesday, they seemed more likely to believe the advocates.

"A lot has to change for it to get better," said Marilyn Kay Walker, a township trustee from Delaware County.

The Family and Social Services Administration has given IBM Corp., Affiliated Computer Services Inc. and other vendors a 10-year, $1.16 billion contract to process enrollment in food stamps, Medicaid, and other public safety net benefits received by 1.1 million disabled and needy Hoosiers. The deal brought call centers, the Internet and fax machines as means to obtain benefits, but has removed individual case workers for each household.

The changes have drawn harsh criticism from welfare recipients, their advocates and lawmakers. Members of the General Assembly's Medicaid Oversight Commission, after hearing testimony from Roob and others this summer, have said they will consider drafting legislation to improve the system.

The changes now in place in 59 counties began last October in a swath of north central Indiana. Roob told the panel Tuesday that flooding in northern Indiana might delay the rollout of the welfare changes to that region until at least December.

In Muncie, where the changes have occurred, Walker said she has contended with the vendors losing bank statements or documents needed to establish eligibility for benefits.

"We have actually faxed it and they say they're not receiving it," Walker said.

She told lawmakers of a man who had received five organ transplants, relies on kidney dialysis and had been receiving Medicaid and food stamps for 10 years until the new eligibility system suddenly cut off his benefits. Walker called a contact in Gov. Mitch Daniels' office, who was able to get them restored.

Walker said she was savvy enough to know who to call for immediate help, but other people threatened with a loss of benefits might not be so lucky.

Rep. Suzanne Crouch, R-Evansville and a member of the commission, said she has heard similar tales.

Walker and Myra Wilkey, executive director of Mental Health America of Vigo County, told lawmakers that many clients need face-to-face contact with case workers to successfully enroll in benefit programs.

Wilkey said some of her clients suffer from anxiety disorders and are unable to remain on hold with the vendors' call centers for long periods, as is sometimes the case.

Roob, however, said privatization has improved the delivery of benefits. He said the number of households in privatized counties receiving food stamps grew 1.88 percent from July to August, compared with 1.43 percent in counties still operating under the old system.

Roob also said the waiting list for welfare recipients waiting to receive job training has shrunk from more than 1,000 clients to just 14 in the 12-county region where privatization began last October. "When you walk in the door, we put you in training that day," Roob said.

However, Republican Sen. Bob Meeks of LaGrange said applicants for that program, called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, now must complete 60 pages of paperwork to get into the program. The process, he said, has grown from "a four-page application to a monster like this."

Roob said the added paperwork made the program cheaper for FSSA, which used to require a 90-minute interview. The agency "had to figure out ways to sign people up in a less human resources-intensive fashion," he said.

"You can't get the welfare-to-work performance that we need and have face-to-face contact with every person that walks into the office," Roob said.

Roob said privatization likely would not expand soon to 13 counties in northwest and north central Indiana because he anticipates President Bush will declare a federal disaster area from current flooding. That would open the door for residents to receive disaster food stamps.

If that happens, the rollout of privatization there would not occur until December or January, he said.