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States' Efforts To Detect Duplicate Public Assistance Payments

HRD-81-133 Published: Sep 17, 1981. Publicly Released: Sep 28, 1981.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO obtained information concerning the efforts of the States to make comparisons of their public assistance rolls for the detection of duplicate payments. GAO also analyzed the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program in four States to determine the extent to which undetected duplicate enrollments and payments occurred in these States.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of HHS should direct the Commissioner of Social Security to give the States a list of the valid ranges of social security numbers for the States' use in checking numbers provided by AFDC beneficiaries.
Closed – Implemented
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of HHS should direct the Commissioner of Social Security to determine why Illinois has so many incorrect social security numbers in its AFDC computerized system.
Closed – Implemented
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of HHS should direct the Commissioner of Social Security to require Illinois to modify its system to prevent the inclusion of beneficiary records with erroneous social security numbers and missing last names.
Closed – Implemented
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of HHS should direct the Commissioner of Social Security to instruct Illinois to correct the erroneous data currently on file.
Closed – Implemented
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of HHS should direct the Commissioner of Social Security to require Tennessee to update the AFDC beneficiary data when dependent children are born to eliminate the designation of "unborn" in children's records.
Closed – Implemented
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of HHS should direct the Inspector General to follow up on State efforts to resolve the potential duplicate AFDC cases that GAO referred to the Inspector General and report on the disposition of these cases.
Closed – Implemented
When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

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Topics

Cost analysisErroneous paymentsSocial security benefitsState programsSocial security numbersMedicaidDate of birthData errorsBeneficiariesPublic assistance programs