Food Stamp Program: Households Collect Benefits for Persons Disqualified for Intentional Program Violations
RCED-99-180
Published: Jul 08, 1999. Publicly Released: Aug 09, 1999.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on households collecting Food Stamp benefits for persons disqualified for intentional program violations, focusing on: (1) how many individuals were included as members of food stamp households in four states while disqualified from the program in calendar year 1997 and estimated the value of the benefits that were improperly issued to those households; and (2) why these individuals were improperly included in households and what actions the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and state agencies could take to detect and prevent disqualified participation.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Agriculture | In order to ensure the integrity of the Food Stamp Program by preventing disqualified participation without imposing significant additional program costs to achieve this goal, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), to collect, analyze, and disseminate state agencies' best practices to help ensure timely action on disqualifications. |
Closed – Implemented
The Food and Nutrition Service stated that resource constraints prohibit a formal "best practices" survey, but that it will share, informally through regional offices, information about any state's Disqualified Recipient Subsystem (DRS) operations that it believes will be of benefit to other states.
|
| Department of Agriculture | In order to ensure the integrity of the Food Stamp Program by preventing disqualified participation without imposing significant additional program costs to achieve this goal, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator, FNS, to require states to use the national database to determine the disqualification status of applicants, using the method that each deems most appropriate to its circumstances. |
Closed – Implemented
The Food and Nutrition Service is publishing a proposed regulation "Food Stamp Program: Disqualified Recipient Subsystem Reporting and Computer Matching Requirements that Affect the Food Stamp Program" in 2003, with the final rule to follow. The regulation will require states to use the national database to determine the disqualification status of applicants and/or recipients.
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| Department of Agriculture | In order to ensure the integrity of the Food Stamp Program by preventing disqualified participation without imposing significant additional program costs to achieve this goal, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator, FNS, to consider, as part of its study on the feasibility of creating a national database to track participation in federal means-tested public assistance programs, a process for periodically matching the disqualification database and disseminating the resulting matches to the states. |
Closed – Implemented
FNS completed and delivered its study on creating a national database to track participation in federal means tested public assistance programs to Congress on November 12, 1999. The study included matching food stamp participation data with information contained in other databases such as the DRS. The study concluded that creating a national database would be cost-effective way of ensuring program integrity.
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| Department of Agriculture | In order to ensure the integrity of the Food Stamp Program by preventing disqualified participation without imposing significant additional program costs to achieve this goal, the Secretary of Agriculture should direct the Administrator, FNS, to take actions to ensure that the states provide the Disqualified Recipient Subsystem (DRS) with disqualification information in a consistent and timely manner, that the data in the DRS are accurate, and that sufficient controls are in place to ensure the accuracy of data submitted to the database. |
Closed – Implemented
The Food and Nutrition Service has revised and added edits, such as an edit to prevent the submission of disqualification with erroneous start dates, to ensure the accuracy of the data in the Disqualified Recipient Subsystem. The Food and Nutrition Service is also in the process of developing guidance for its regional offices, including training and reference materials, to improve the monitoring of state data transmissions.
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Topics
Best practicesData integritystate relationsFood relief programsFraudInternal controlsOverpaymentsProgram abusesState-administered programsDatabases