| Project: Program Integrity and Improved Service to the Working Poor Under Alternative Reporting Plans |
| Award Year: 1999 |
| Amount of award, fiscal 1999: $348,428.00 |
| Institution: The SPHERE Institute |
| Principal Investigator: Thomas MaCurdy |
| Status: Completed |
| Detailed Objective: This work evaluates alternative Food Stamp Program (FSP) reporting schemes
to determine which best serves the working poor and preserves program integrity.
In order to provide States greater flexibility in reporting requirements, The
Hunger Prevention Act of 1988 permitted States to replace the previously mandated
monthly reporting and retrospective budgeting (MRRB) requirement for households
with earnings with a change reporting and prospective budgeting (CRPB) scheme.
However, California has been reluctant to adopt CRPB in place of MRRB because
of concerns that benefit levels could differ from what clients currently receive,
quality control (QC) error rates and fraud rates could increase, and fraud prosecutions
could become more difficult. Despite these concerns, CRPB is appealing to county
welfare agencies because they believe such a reporting system will greatly improve
client service. County agencies also anticipate that CRPB will reduce the amount
of time staff spend checking, processing, and acting on monthly reports, freeing
them to spend more time working directly with clients to enhance their self-sufficiency.
Data from the upcoming shift in California from MRRB to CRPB will be used to
compare the two schemes. The work will
- determine whether FSP eligibility and benefit levels change under the alternative
reporting schemes;
-
measure how the change from MRRB to CRPB affects administrative staff time
and other costs;
-
evaluate client satisfaction with CRPB relative to MRRB.
An experimental test will be performed involving two alternative timings for
face-to-face recertification interviews with CRPB in order to determine the
most effective ways to minimize threats to program integrity. The work will
also develop a profiling model that program administrators can use to target
resources in a way to avert errors and fraud. A cooperative assistance agreement
was awarded to The SPHERE Institute in collaboration with the Solano County
Health and Social Services Department. Its cost is $348,428 in fiscal 1999.
The expected completion date of the project is July 2002. |
| Topic: Poverty, Program Operations, School Lunch and Breakfast, SNAP/Food Stamp Program |
| Dataset: Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) |
Output:
MaCurdy, T., and G. Marrufo. The MID-SIPP Model: A Simulation Approach for Projecting Impacts of Changes in the Food Stamp Program, Contractor and Cooperator Report No. 24, USDA, ERS, October 2006. |