Food Stamp Overpayments

GAO identified nearly 26,000 dead people who were included in households receiving food stamps during 1995 and 1996. These households improperly collected an estimated $8.5 million in food stamp benefits. The inclusion of dead people in food stamp households goes undetected because agencies rely on unverified information on household members provided by food stamp applicants and participants. States' computer matching of persons in food stamp households with data in the Social Security Administration's more comprehensive Death Master File would provide a cost-effective way to identify dead persons who are included in food stamp households. It would be even more cost-effective, however, for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to notify states when a food stamp participant dies, rather than have the state do computer matches, because SSA already has a system in place to identify persons who continue to receive Social Security benefits after death.

GAO noted that: (1) GAO identified nearly 26,000 deceased individuals in the four states GAO reviewed who were included in households receiving food stamps for the 2-year period 1995 through 1996; (2) these households improperly collected an estimated $8.5 million in food stamps benefits; (3) the inclusion of deceased individuals in food stamp households goes undetected because agencies rely primarily on unverified information on household membership provided by food stamp applicants and participants; (4) states are not required to match applicant-provided social security numbers with the social security numbers of deceased individuals; (5) however, several state agencies match information on the applicant's household members with information on deceased individuals from their state's vital statistics agency; (6) these states' efforts have had mixed success because the states have not always had verified, comprehensive death information; (7) while the Social Security Administration (SSA) makes information on its deceased beneficiaries available to state agencies through its State Verification and Exchange System, this information is limited to the recipients of specific SSA benefits; (8) states' computer matching of individuals in food stamp households with data in SSA's more comprehensive Death Master File would provide a cost-effective mechanism to accurately and independently identify deceased individuals included in food stamp households; (9) it would be even more cost-effective, however, for SSA to notify the states when a food stamp participant dies, rather than having the states conduct computer matches, because SSA already has a system in place to identify deceased individuals who received food stamp benefits but not social security benefits; and (10) furthermore, some states place restrictions on the use of the death data they provide to SSA; the agency currently does not have the authority to disclose restricted death information to other states administering federal benefit programs.

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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