From left Ken Cleeton, Lillie Cleeton and K.L. Cleeton are in the production room of 2Fast4U Productions. Ken and Lillie Cleeton are his personal assistants who care for K.L. in his home, who is essentially paralyzed from the neck down.

The effects of an ongoing budget dispute between state lawmakers and the governor of Illinois may soon impact thousands of residents who depend on in-home workers to provide care for their loved ones.

A new policy designed to limit overtime pay for about 24,000 such workers became state law on May 1, and a union representing the workers estimates that as many as a third of them have already been affected.

Kaitlin DeCero, a senior communications specialist with Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois, told the Effingham, Illinois Daily News that about 8,600 personal assistants — and the same number of disabled state residents — have already seen changes in their schedules.

In addition to workers forgoing overtime pay, the policy mandates that patients requiring more than 40 hours of care per week find a different qualified person to provide care beyond those 40 hours. That can mean a lengthy, sometimes complicated interview process.

“It is not about the overtime pay as much as it is about the fact they are taking away my right to choose who cares for me,” said K.L. Cleeton.

Cleeton was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy when he was six months old, and at age 26, he says his skilled caregivers — his parents, Lillie and Ken — are responsible for the quality of life he enjoys. The couple is paid by the Home Service Program of the Illinois Department of Human Services.

“We are his arms and legs,” said Ken Cleeton, who says he and his wife provide K.L. Cleeton with things most people take for granted, like having an itch scratched, getting a drink and helping him use the restroom and get dressed.

Marianne Manko, director of communications for the Illinois Department of Human Services, said the state’s overtime policy change came about after a class action lawsuit was filed by Service Employees International Union Healthcare Illinois workers who had not been getting paid time and a half for more than 40 hours of work. Workers won the lawsuit and the U.S. Department of Labor decided because it would significantly raise taxpayer costs, each state could write its own overtime policy. The idea was to control costs at the state level.

Manko said the policy in Illinois brings on more personal assistants to cover clients’ needs at an estimated cost of $15 million.

“I can assure you that IDHS is not cutting customer’s service hours,” Manko said. “They will still get the number of eligible hours, determined by their needs score. All we ask is that people justify the hours they work.”

Manko said opponents have been spreading misinformation about the new Home Service Provider Overtime policy, put into place by the Department of Human Services on Jan. 3. Officials began enforcing it May 1.

“It comes down to a safety issue for the client,” said Manko. “If they want to remain at home, we prefer a customer has multiple people who can give them the care they need. The client gets to choose who they want.”

For people like Cleeton, the difference between having personal assistants like his parents or not could mean either living at home or in a nursing facility, DeCero said.

“I rely completely and totally on my parents,” K.L. Cleeton said. “They are my employees. I have hired them through the Home Services Program. Because of them I am able to remain in my home, but also I’m able to remain in the care of the two people that know me better than anyone in the world ever possibly could.”

Schabbing writes for the Effingham, Illinois Daily News.