General Accounting Office's Review of Efforts To Reduce Food Stamp Program Losses

GAO discussed the need for greater efforts to recover costs of food stamps obtained through error or fraud. Much of GAO work with the Food Stamp Program focuses on prevention and recovery of Federal losses from overissued food stamp benefits. There is also a legitimate concern that eligible program recipients receive their full entitlement. A major reason for overissuances is that many applicants and recipients do not accurately report changes involving household income, assets, size, or allowable program deductions. Although States and the Department of Agriculture have identified specific cases or erroneous issuances through various procedures, they have not placed major emphasis on identifying households that obtained benefits to which they were not entitled. GAO believes that more emphasis on identification and pursuit of overissuance cases is needed. Various mechanisms exist to identify specific cases with errors, ranging from improving routine operating procedures to the use of computer matching and error-prone profiles. Computer matching, especially for wages, is a promising technique for identifying erroneous cases and preventing losses. After matching, a caseworker followup would be required to reconcile discrepancies. GAO concluded that other measures, such as retrospective accounting, periodic reporting, requirements for providing social security numbers, longer disqualification periods for fraud, use of photo identification, and authority to require revisions in State benefit issuance procedures should also have a favorable impact on reducing Food Stamp Program losses.