113-6          RECIPIENT REFUSES TO COOPERATE

Recipient cooperation is a condition of eligibility for the Alaska Food Stamp Program.  Occasionally, the recipient will not cooperate with the QA Quality Assurance Reviewer by refusing to be interviewed or neglecting to provide information needed to complete the review.  When this happens, the QA Quality Assurance Reviewer takes the following steps:

1. The QA Quality Assurance Reviewer sends a letter to the recipient requesting cooperation in completing the review.
    

2. The QA Quality Assurance Reviewer requests the caseworker to send a letter to the recipient requesting cooperation with the QA Quality Assurance review process.
    

3. If these two steps are unsuccessful, the QA Quality Assurance Supervisor in Anchorage sends a letter to the recipient requesting the recipient’s cooperation.
    

4. If the recipient remains uncooperative, the QA Quality Assurance Reviewer determines if the recipient meets the FNS Food and Nutrition Service definition of refusing to cooperate.
    

5. For recipients meeting the ”refusing to cooperate” criteria, the QA Quality Assurance Reviewer requests the caseworker to close the Food Stamp case via the Q-Form, and advises the caseworker of the effective dates for the disqualification period.  For other programs, the caseworker follows instructions in the policy manual for a special case review.

Note:

The caseworker takes action to close the Food Stamp case only after receiving the Q-Form advising the caseworker of the recipient’s noncooperation. Follow instructions in the Alaska Temporary Assistance Manual if the ATAP Adult Temporary Assistance Program recipient refuses to cooperate.

In some situations, the QA Quality Assurance Reviewer can complete the review without the recipient's cooperation.  Completing the review does not change the client’s penalty for refusing to cooperate.  With the Q-Form the reviewer will notify the caseworker of the refusal and the effective dates of the disqualification penalty.  If the recipient reapplies during the disqualification period, all applications should be denied for failure to cooperate with QA Quality Assurance until the disqualification period has ended or the recipient has cooperated with QA Quality Assurance .

When the recipient cooperates with QA Quality Assurance after the closure, QA Quality Assurance will notify the caseworker of the cooperation and the date to end the disqualification.

Some clients agree to cooperate, but fail to cooperate for reasons outside of their control.  If this occurs, the case remains open, unless some other factor affecting eligibility is discovered.  In these cases, the caseworker may conduct a special eligibility review when the recipient fails to cooperate in an attempt to verify questionable information.