West Virginia’s public assistance programs are scattered across a labyrinth of agencies, offices, and caseworkers — leaving struggling families to navigate a fragmented system at the worst possible time. This brief makes the case for a “One Door” approach: integrating workforce and social services into a single, streamlined department, modeled on Utah’s nationally recognized Department of Workforce Services.
The Problem: A Fragmented, Siloed System
Imagine a recently laid-off West Virginian navigating the public assistance system. She might need food assistance from one office, childcare support from another, job training from a third, and health coverage from a fourth — each with a different caseworker, a different application, and a different set of requirements. There is little coordination among these agencies. The result is wasted time, duplicated effort, and worse outcomes for everyone involved. West Virginia’s safety net programs are broadly split between the Department of Human Services (administering SNAP, TANF, WIC, Medicaid, and CHIP) and WorkForce West Virginia under the Department of Commerce (job training, unemployment insurance, WIOA). Though the populations they serve heavily overlap, formal integration between these agencies is limited — producing inefficiencies, administrative costs, and diminished outcomes.
The Solution: Utah’s One Door Model
Utah’s Department of Workforce Services (DWS) is built on two powerful ideas: that people should not have to understand government bureaucracy to receive a hand up, and that the best path out of poverty is through work. The DWS brings everything under one roof — job placement, public assistance, unemployment benefits, health coverage — through a single, integrated agency. Three structural elements make Utah’s model work. First, a single statewide authority — rather than fragmented local workforce areas — provides a cohesive mission and simplified administration. Second, a unified Eligibility Services division determines program eligibility for all programs in one visit. Third, an innovative financial management system using Random Moment Time Sampling (RMTS) replaces burdensome daily timesheets with statistical sampling to track and allocate federal costs efficiently. “People should not have to understand government bureaucracy to receive a hand up. The best and most sustainable path to poverty alleviation is through work.” — Guiding principles of Utah’s Department of Workforce Services
Utah’s Results: What the Data Shows
Utah’s One Door model has produced measurable results that other states have been unable to match. While SNAP enrollment grew 16.6% across all other states from 1994 to 2024, Utah’s SNAP population actually decreased by 26.4% over the same period. Similarly, while labor force participation fell 7.4% nationally, Utah’s decline was only 5.5%. The COVID-19 pandemic further validated the model. By August 2020, Utah’s unemployment rate was 4.9%, compared to 8.4% nationwide. By December 2020, it had fallen to 3.6% — a level the national average didn’t reach until March 2022. The integrated DWS allowed Utah to reconnect workers with employment faster than any other state.
