Federal and State Initiatives Needed To Improve Productivity and Reduce Administrative Costs of the Aid to Families With Dependent Children and Food Stamp Programs

Administrative costs in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and Food Stamp programs have increased at a more rapid pace than benefit payments to recipients. GAO reviewed the processing of AFDC and Food Stamp applications at 15 welfare offices in 8 states. This review was based on a comparison of the productivity of these offices. GAO also examined the impact that inconsistent federal criteria for determining an applicant's income and assets and different federal time periods for processing AFDC and Food Stamp cases have on productivity.

From its review, GAO found that productivity rates of workers directly involved in processing AFDC and Food Stamp applications varied widely among the 15 welfare offices. This variance resulted primarily from processing practices, which included case-processing methods, use of computers, management expectation of employee performance, and efforts to verify applicants' data. Although the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) considered demographic factors to be a key cause of productivity variances in the AFDC program, GAO determined that they did not have a significant impact on the 15 offices. In addition, GAO found that: (1) federal requirements for determining an applicant's income and assets hinder state and local case-processing productivity; and (2) federal agencies need to emphasize productivity in much the same way as they have emphasized reducing payment errors.

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.

Director: Brian L. Usilaner Team: General Accounting Office: Accounting and Financial Management Division Phone: (202) 275-5074