Broadcast to all DPA staff from the Semi-Annual Reporting Project Design Team
As part of our continuing effort to keep you informed of the progress of
the Semi-annual Reporting project (known currently as Simplified
Reporting), this broadcast explains why we chose to request a waiver to
act on all changes. As for the name change, there has been considerable
work done to outline the policies that will guide this new way of
working, and we have realized that the term "simplified" is a bit
misleading.
Semi-annual reporting puts households on a semi-annual report schedule
(6-month certifications), and requires a change to be reported only when
a household's gross monthly income exceeds their gross income limit. It
essentially results in many FS households having their benefit levels
frozen for 6 months. While this concept is simple, like many other
policies, application of it has its challenges.
Another decision the project design team made, was to pursue a waiver
with FNS to act on all changes that are reported by the household. When
new federal policy is introduced, states have an option to submit a
waiver by proposing alternative procedures to administer the policy. The
decision to request the waiver was based on two main factors:
- It results in simpler policy. Without the waiver,
caseworkers would be required to decide whether a reported change needed
to be processed. If several changes are reported at once or other
programs are involved, they would have to work the case in order to
determine the impact on the food stamp allotment. This takes staff time,
and could be error prone if caseworkers takes action on changes that
should not have been processed. Additionally, the policy of acting on
some changes and not others could be confusing to clients and
caseworkers. - EIS could not support the policy if we did not request
the waiver. EIS is not configured to hold different income and
expense amounts for different programs. Therefore, it is not possible to
use one income amount for food stamps and another for Temporary
Assistance, APA or Medicaid. The solution is to keep food stamps
aligned with the other programs by acting on all reported changes.
Other states have found this option to result in less confusion for
staff, both in dealing with Food Stamp benefits and in more complicated
"combo" cases involving several programs.
Again remember, the semi-annual reporting option could improve our error
rate by as much as 2.5% overall. This policy option benefits FS
recipients in that it stabilizes benefits, and has shown a marked
improvement in accuracy rates in the 20+ states that have adopted the
policy.
Equally important is the need to educate clientele about the reporting
requirements prior to and after implementation of this new policy. All
states that have implemented this policy suggested that we put effort
toward educating clients. We have planned several notification
strategies to include mailers, posters, and as often as possible during
staff interactions. If we are successful at informing clientele of what
types of changes they need to report and when, the number of changes
that are reported should decrease. We cannot over emphasize the need to
inform clientele of their simplified reporting requirements.
This step is one of a series of changes that will be made to improve our
food stamp accuracy rate. Implementation of semi-annual reporting is
part of our ongoing campaign to reach our goal of attaining a payment
error rate of less than 7% by the end of September '04. More information
about semi-annual reporting is available at
http://dpaweb.hss.state.ak.us/node/view/226.
We will continue to communicate these policy developments to you as they
occur. Thank you for your input on this project and patience as we move
forward on this new way of working.