Report 2015-503 Recommendation 12 Responses

Report 2015-503: Follow-Up—California Department of Social Services: It Has Not Corrected Previously Recognized Deficiencies in Its Oversight of Counties' Antifraud Efforts for the CalWORKs and CalFresh Programs (Release Date: June 2015)

Recommendation #12 To: Social Services, Department of

To make counties' review of match lists more efficient, Social Services should revive its efforts to work with the state and federal agencies that prepare the match lists to address the counties' concerns about match list formats, content, and criteria.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2020

There are several letters in draft regarding IEVS match processing. CDSS is continuing to refine the draft ACL providing prioritization of the IEVS matches to the counties which will be published by the end of 2020. Counties have already been advised via ACL 17-41 that open cases have a statutory requirement to be reviewed within 45 days while closed cases must be reviewed as soon as administratively possible which allows for some flexibility in the prioritization of IEVS match processing.

There is also Another draft ACL providing match processing requirements for the Integrated Fraud Detection (IFD) match that will be published by the end of 2020.

It should also be noted that on June 5, 2020 the Department issued and ACWDL advising counties of the temporary suspension of RIEVS IEVS due to the impact of COVID-19.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

As indicated in Social Services' response, its efforts are still in progress.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2019

CDSS has published ACLs 19-52 and 19-33 that provided clarifying instructions on the processing of the New Hire Registry, Deceased Persons, and Nationwide Prisoners Matches to ensure accurate and timely processing of these IEVS matches. In addition, another draft ACL that will be published in November 2019 will provide a process prioritization of IEVS matches.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2018

CDSS continues its regular communication with the counties via the Recipient IEVS workgroup (R-IEVS). The R-IEVS workgroup meets quarterly to discuss ongoing efforts to improve the process and quality of the data and matches, as well as clarify instructions for the counties to follow. As a result, changes to the thresholds of some of the IEVS matches are being implemented to reduce the volume of insignificant data being provided to counties so that work can be done on more impactful data being provided.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

This recommendation has been outstanding since the release of the original audit in November 2009. We are hopeful that Social Services is serious in its stated intent to address this recommendation by June 2019.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From December 2017

See response to Recommendation 9.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

See our comment on recommendation 9.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2016

CDSS is still meeting with the Recipient Income Eligibility and Verification System (R-IEVS) workgroup to improve the quality of the matches. The estimated completion date for changes to the matches is April 2017, with the implementation of the eIEVS portal.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

CDSS conducted bi-weekly meetings with the Recipient IEVS workgroup from December 2015 through May of 2016. County participants identified policy and processing challenges associated with the ten IEVS matches. CDSS will identify and prioritize potential solutions.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending

6-Month Agency Response

On October 28, 2015, CDSS convened the first meeting of Recipient Income Eligibility and Verification System (IEVS) workgroup. This was a kick-off meeting to assemble the county participants and discuss participants' roles and responsibilities. The purpose of the workgroup is to gather and identify policy and processing challenges associated with the ten IEVS matches, and identify and prioritize potential solutions. The workgroup will meet twice a month and review one IEVS match per meeting. The workgroup will develop a list of prioritized solutions for each IEVS match by June 2016.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CDSS has solicited county representatives to participate in the workgroup.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Partially Implemented

All Recommendations in 2015-503

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.