Alaska

• Alaska’s TANF program is State administered. The State defines improper payments the same as they are defined in the Improper Payment Information Act of 2002. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance, payments to service providers, and regular on-site reviews of contracted work services. Information on improper payments comes from reviews of service providers and contractors and reviews of statistically representative samples of payments. The State calculates an improper payments rate by dividing the total benefits in error by the total benefits issued to cases reviewed in the sample.

 

Arizona

• Arizona’s TANF program is State administered. The State defines improper payments as those payments that are issued to a participant when they receive more than they are entitled to receive due to various reasons such as unreported changes, system errors, client fraud, and agency errors. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs and processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non-assistance benefits or services. Information on improper payments comes from reviews of statistically representative and non-statistically representative samples of cases and root cause analyses of error trends. The State calculates an improper payments rate by dividing the total error amount of the sample reviewed by the allotment of the sample reviewed.

 

California

• California has a State Supervised/County Administered TANF Program. The State defines improper payments as an overpayment in any amount of any aid payment an Assistance Unit received to which it was not eligible, or an underpayment when the applicant or recipient receives less than the amount to which he/she is entitled in a given month or months. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including findings from State or local fraud units and a statistically representative sample of payments. The State calculates an improper payments rate from county reports and fraud unit reports.

 

Colorado

• Colorado’s TANF program is State supervised and county administered. The State defines improper payments as overpayments or underpayments paid to recipients or vendors as a result of household or administrative errors, or payments paid as a result of any fraudulent acts by vendors, recipients, or agency staff. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk as have some individual counties. The State has implemented programs and processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non-assistance benefits or services. Information on improper payments comes from a full caseload report from the Accounts Receivable on-line sub-system. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Delaware

• Delaware has a State Administered TANF program. The State defines improper payments as either an overpayment or underpayment of cash assistance. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance payments. Information on improper payments comes from the State’s Single Audit. The State indicates that an improper payments rate is not available.

 

Georgia

• Georgia’s TANF program is State administered. The State defines improper payments as “benefits paid to an assistance unit for which the assistance unit was not eligible or the assistance unit does not receive all the benefits to which it is entitled”. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has not assessed the risk of improper payments. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including the Single State Audit, finding from the State office of fraud and abuse, reviews of non-statistically representative samples of program payments, and automated eligibility system reports. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Illinois

• Illinois has a State Administered TANF program. The State defines improper payments as “when a client does not receive all the benefits they qualify for (underpayment) or they receive more benefits than they qualify for”. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has not assessed improper payments risk. The State has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance benefits. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Iowa

• Iowa’s TANF program is State administered. The state defines improper payments as underpayments and overpayments to participants. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has not assessed the risk of improper payments. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including the State fraud unit and reviews of sampled cases, both statistically representative and not statistically representative. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Kansas (pdf only)

• Kansas has a State Administered TANF program. The State defines improper payments in the same manner as the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has not assessed improper payments risk. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including quality assurance reviews, special audits, and staff reviews. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Kentucky (pdf only)

• The State’s TANF program is State Administered. The State defines improper payments as a payment made to a vendor, provider, or recipient due to error, fraud, or abuse. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk only with regard to worker fraud. It has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services, and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including State audits, fraud investigations, statistically representative quality control reviews, and non-statistically representative reviews of sampled cases. The State does not calculate an improper payment rate.

 

Maryland

• Maryland’s TANF program is State supervised and county administered. The State defines improper payments as any overpayment or agency-caused underpayment to a Temporary Cash Assistance recipient. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed the risk of improper payments and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance payments, nonassistance benefits and services, and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including State audits, fraud investigations, supervisory reviews, quality control reviews, and reviews of service providers and contractors. The State calculates an improper payments rate from a monthly random sample of paid cases.

 

Michigan

• Michigan has a State Administered TANF program. The State defines improper payments as including “over- or under-issuance of benefits or issuing benefits in error”. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services, and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from the State’s automated systems and reports. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Minnesota

• Minnesota ’s TANF program is a State supervised /county administrated program. The State’s definition of improper payments is consistent with the definition used in the Improper Payment Information Act of 2002. The State has policies and procedures for the identification, verification and collection of improper payments. Minnesota has not performed an improper payments risk assessment. It collects information on improper payments from both a quality control (QC) review of a statistical representative sample of TANF payments and from fraud investigations. The State does not calculate an improper payment rate.

 

Mississippi (pdf only)

• Mississippi has a State Administered TANF Program. The State defines improper payments as “receipt of a payment to which a participant is not entitled as a result of suspected fraud, client error, or agency error.” The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services, and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including case reviews by supervisory staff and computer matches by field workers. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Missouri

• Missouri’s TANF program is State administered. The State defines improper payments as payments issued erroneously as a result of client or agency error; they can be the result of information incorrectly reported, not reported and/or not acted upon. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has not assessed the risk of improper payments; however, it has policies and procedures in place for verification and recovery of improper payments. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including wage matches and new employment data. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Montana (pdf only)

• The State’s TANF program is State Supervised/County Administered. The State defines improper payments as any TANF benefit paid to or on behalf of an assistance unit to which it was not entitled, regardless of whether the overpayment occurred due to a non-fraudulent action or omission by the TANF participant or fraudulent action by the TANF participant. These overpayments are pursued for repayment. A payment made in error by the agency, is logged as an overpayment, but will not be considered for collection if the total overpayment is less than 150% of the current monthly benefit, or if the overpayment covers a period of more than three months. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services, and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including State audits and non-statistically representative reviews of sampled cases. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate for the TANF program, although it uses the Food Stamp error statistics to develop a comparable rate for TANF.

 

Nebraska (pdf only)

• Nebraska has a State Administered TANF Program. The State defines improper payments as payments for more or less than the client was entitled to under law and regulation. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance payments. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including findings from the State’s Single Audit, findings from other auditors, reviews of sampled cases, and TANF cases reviewed under Food Stamp Quality Control. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

New Jersey

• New Jersey’s TANF program is State supervised/county administered. The State defines improper payments consistent with the definition used in the Improper Payment Information Act of 2002. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed the risk of improper payment with respect to monthly cash assistance. Information on improper payments comes primarily from statistically reliable samples of TANF payments, which the State uses to calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Ohio

• Ohio has a State Supervised/County Administered TANF program. The State defines improper payments as payments of cash assistance under Ohio Works First to assistance groups not eligible to receive assistance. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payments risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services, and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from a statistically representative sample of payments. The State calculates an improper payments rate by means of a statistically valid statewide sample of 100 cases that is selected and reviewed monthly by the internal Ohio Department of Job and Family Services quality control unit.

 

Oklahoma

• Oklahoma’s TANF program is State administered. The State defines improper payments as when a TANF cash assistance household receives fewer benefits than they were entitled or when they receive more benefits than they were entitled. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has not assessed the risk of improper payments. Information on improper payments comes from the Single State Audit and the State’s Office of Inspector General. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Pennsylvania

• Pennsylvania has a State Administered TANF program. The State does not have a codified definition of “improper payments”, but does have various processes in place to identify overpayments, underpayments, and payments to persons who are ineligible or payments for services for which a recipient was not eligible or did not receive. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, establishing claims for, collection, distribution, and sources of funding for recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services, and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including State audits, fraud investigations, reviews of service providers, and quality control reviews. The State calculates a payment error rate based on a quality assurance control sample.

 

Rhode Island (pdf only)

• Rhode Island has a State Administered TANF Program. The State defines improper payments consistent with the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to front end detection. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including findings from the State’s Single Audit, findings from fraud units, reviews of service providers and contractors, reviews of sampled cases, and reports from the integrated database. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

Utah

• Utah’s TANF program is State administered. The State defines improper payments as administrative errors, inadvertent household errors, suspected intentional program violations, and intentional program violations. . The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services and payments to service providers. Information on improper payments comes from the Single State Audit and findings from the State fraud unit. The State does not calculate an improper payments rate.

 

West Virginia

• West Virginia’s TANF program is State administered. The State defines improper payments consistent with the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002. The State has policies and procedures for identification, verification, and recovery of improper payments. The State has assessed improper payment risk and has implemented programs/processes with respect to monthly cash assistance and non assistance benefits or services. Information on improper payments comes from a variety of sources including State audits, fraud investigations, supervisory reviews, and quality assurance reviews. The State calculates an improper payment rate based on a quality assurance review sample.