The chickens hatched during the budget negotiations over the last two months are quickly coming home to roost. The Department of Human Services is cutting 320 jobs just when the number of Michigan residents in need of the agency’s services is exploding due to rising unemployment and poverty. MLive.com reports:

The Michigan Department of Human Services will slash some 320 jobs as a result of funding cuts from the state that come at a time when the agency is seeing record levels of demand for services.

The move comes as more than 1 million people are seeking help from the department, which provides public assistance and child and family welfare services.

“We are seeing unprecedented numbers of people coming to our offices to seek assistance,” spokeswoman Gisgie Davila Gendreau told Lansing’s WLNS-TV.

The most recent statistics from September showed the department provided food assistance to some 1.6 million workers and had 1.8 million residents receiving Medicaid health benefits, spokeswoman Colleen Steinman said. The department’s Child Protective Services unit was investigating up to 6,500 allegations of abuse during the month.

Last week, the Republican-led Michigan Senate defeated a plan that would have brought in more than $800 million to boost Medicaid services, most of it with federal matching funds.