Food Stamps

Substantial Overpayments Result From Prisoners Counted as Household Members Gao ID: RCED-97-54 March 10, 1997

Despite federal regulations prohibiting prisoners from receiving food stamps, GAO identified more than 12,000 inmates who were included in households receiving food stamps. These households improperly collected $3.5 million in benefits. Payments to prisoners go undetected because government agencies do not verify the information on household membership provided by food stamp applicants. Moreover, most state and local agencies responsible for running the program do not routinely collect and review lists of persons in state and local prisons to determine whether they are being counted as members of food stamp households. Because of the program's reliance on information provided by clients, computer matching of lists of prisoners and household members could detect prisoner participation. Although some states have introduced various computer matching routines, many states have yet to do so.

GAO noted that: (1) despite federal regulations prohibiting inmates of correctional institutions from participating in the Food Stamp Program, GAO identified 12,138 inmates in the areas it examined who were included in households receiving food stamps; (2) these households improperly collected an estimated $3.5 million in food stamp benefits; (3) prisoner participation goes undetected because agencies generally do not verify the information on household membership provided by food stamp applicants; (4) furthermore, according to officials of the Department of Agriculture's Food Stamp Program, most state or local agencies responsible for administering the program do not routinely collect and review lists of individuals incarcerated in state and local facilities to determine whether any of these individuals are being counted as members of food stamp households; (5) given the program's reliance on client-provided information, computer matching of lists of prisoners and food stamp household members provides a straightforward and potentially effective mechanism to accurately and independently identify prisoners' participation; and (6) while states have implemented various computer matching routines, such as the Income and Eligibility Verification System, which compares data on welfare clients with data on state and federal wages and benefits, many states have not yet implemented a computer matching program to identify prisoners participating in the Food Stamp Program.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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