Audit Report on the Controls of the Human Resources Administration’s Bureau of Eligibility Verification over the Investigation of Cash Assistance Applicants

AUDIT REPORT IN BRIEF

The New York City Human Resources Administration’s (HRA) mission is to enhance the quality of life for all City residents by providing temporary assistance to eligible individuals and families in New York City to help them lead independent and productive lives. Family Assistance (FA) provides cash assistance to families and Safety Net Assistance (SNA) provides cash assistance to single adults or couples without children. FA clients can receive cash assistance for up to five years, and SNA clients can receive cash assistance for up to two years as long as their eligibility status is verified each year.

Requests for cash assistance are initiated at any one of HRA’s 26 Job Centers. Applicants who apply for FA or SNA cash assistance must receive a decision from the Job Centers within 30 and 45 calendar days, respectively, from the date the application is filed at the Job Centers. As required by New York State Social Services Law §132, HRA’s Bureau of Eligibility Verification (BEV) is responsible for conducting eligibility reviews of applicants to ensure that only eligible persons receive cash assistance. BEV assesses eligibility by conducting in-depth interviews, background checks, and home visits.

This audit determined whether BEV is processing and investigating cash assistance applications in a timely and effective manner in accordance with established procedures.

Audit Findings and Conclusions

BEV is generally processing and investigating cash assistance applications in a timely and effective manner and in accordance with established procedures. For the sampled 92 cases, 34 cases were denied, 30 cases valued at $130,190.93 were accepted, and 28 cases valued at $69,134.56 were accepted with a reduced budget. Our review found that face-to-face interviews were conducted within the required 17-day timeframe. Although BEV does not have a time standard by which it must make its recommendations to Job Centers, BEV generally made its recommendations within the 30- or 45-day timeframe in which HRA is required to render cash assistance decisions to applicants. The audit also found that the Job Centers’ final decisions for cash assistance benefits generally corresponded with the recommendations made by BEV, and applications requiring field visits were performed by two investigators at all times.

However, while we were able to obtain relevant information to perform tests for all 92 cases from HRA’s databases, BEV was unable to find nine hard-copy files, despite several requests within a three-month period. As a result, we could not determine whether the applicants actually submitted the required documentation that they were asked to bring as evidence of eligibility.

Audit Recommendations

The audit recommended that BEV should:

• Make every effort to maintain all hard-copy case files containing the client’s verification documents upon which its recommendation is based. BEV officials should continue to look for the nine missing files that we cited.

• Ensure that all required home visits are conducted by field investigators and that the results of those visits are entered in MAPPER.

HRA Response

In their response, HRA officials agreed with the audit’s recommendations.