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Its the "confirm" part that I'm asking about. I know what they all *SAY*, but what does "confirm" mean in reality? Same with "look at". What does "look at" mean in reality? They can ask to see your bank statements, but what if you tell them you don't have any? What if you show them 1 statement for an account with $50 in it and don't show them the one with $50k in it? It is the verification aspect that I am wondering about, not just what their own literature says. What measures are in place to keep a dishonest person who is trying to game the system from getting benefits that they are ineligible for?
A clerk gets that morning's reports from a computer program that takes as input applicants & their social security numbers and SNAP application, and an extract from Social Security and Medicare where they have names, social security numbers, bank accounts & balances, brokerage accounts and balances, plus from the DMV automobile registration information & social security numbers... plus information from the primary credit reporting agencies TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, plus... well, I hope you get the idea.
It is an audit by exception system. The Applicant says "these are my assets and income" and all the other sources, when put together, must match what the Applicant says... if not, The Big Computer System In The Sky kicks it out for an audit.
People who are familiar with how it works. People who work for DHHS, and others who have just applied, lied, and have been continuously receiving snap benefits while having both an income that exceeds the stated cap and have savings that exceed the stated cap. I'm asking the questions because I am unfamiliar with how it works and have never applied nor received any snap benefits.
Yes, Social Services will want copies of all your bank account statements, proof of all assets-they'll want to see your vehicle titles, property deeds, proof of any investment and interest income... they'll probably even ask you how much cash you have on hand. They'll also want proof of your monthly living expenses.
Post edit: Mogaldreamer sums it up very well in post #21.
A clerk gets that morning's reports from a computer program that takes as input applicants & their social security numbers and SNAP application, and an extract from Social Security and Medicare where they have names, social security numbers, bank accounts & balances, brokerage accounts and balances, plus from the DMV automobile registration information & social security numbers... plus information from the primary credit reporting agencies TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian, plus... well, I hope you get the idea.
It is an audit by exception system. The Applicant says "these are my assets and income" and all the other sources, when put together, must match what the Applicant says... if not, The Big Computer System In The Sky kicks it out for an audit.
Yes, Social Services will want copies of all your bank account statements, proof of all assets-they'll want to see your vehicle titles, property deeds, proof of any investment and interest income... they'll probably even ask you how much cash you have on hand. They'll also want proof of your monthly living expenses.
Post edit: Mogaldreamer sums it up very well in post #21.
Again, what they want and what they ask for and what the paperwork says is not the question.
As I stated, I thought asking here was worth a shot, but will continue to find authoritative sources. For every person who claims it works one way, there is someone else who claims it doesn't. So unless you can cite a source, thanks for your opinion.
The obvious question is if you have $1M in the bank, why don't you just buy your own food?
But I wouldn't bet on the authorities finding out about it. I asked a similar question about a friend who applied for Medicaid while owning (and not disclosing) a second house. The patient in need died, so it never proceeded, but it appeared they didn't investigate and never discovered it.
The obvious question is if you have $1M in the bank, why don't you just buy your own food?
But I wouldn't bet on the authorities finding out about it. I asked a similar question about a friend who applied for Medicaid while owning (and not disclosing) a second house. The patient in need died, so it never proceeded, but it appeared they didn't investigate and never discovered it.
After all, it's the government!
Applying and receiving are two different things. Also is the patient in need the same as the person applying? Benefits only go to the person who needs the benefit not to the person who is applying for it. i.e. A Millionaire could put their grandma on Medicare provided she meets income and other eligibility requirements.
Personal knowledge. Audit-by-exception is the method used throughout government for self-reporting systems. The IRS uses an audit-by-exception system: every payor tells the federal government how much they paid a person (banks, employers, stock brokers, etc etc); every person says how much they were paid; the computer systems do a match with audit-by-exception. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the Department of the Interior also uses an audit-by-exception system. MMS is the 2nd largest collector of money, behind the IRS; the MMS tracks & collects royalties a rental payments on federally owned land for oil, natural gas, timber, coal, geothermal, etc - producers report how much is produced (barrels, cubic feet, etc); pipelines report inputs and outputs; refiners report how much they receive from pipelines & extractors, and so on and so on. It is all matched with an audit-by-exception system to designed to identify discrepancies and investigate for fraud.
The Audit-by-exception system is successfully used by social welfare entities as well.
Personal knowledge. Audit-by-exception is the method used throughout government for self-reporting systems. The IRS uses an audit-by-exception system: every payor tells the federal government how much they paid a person (banks, employers, stock brokers, etc etc); every person says how much they were paid; the computer systems do a match with audit-by-exception. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the Department of the Interior also uses an audit-by-exception system. MMS is the 2nd largest collector of money, behind the IRS; the MMS tracks & collects royalties a rental payments on federally owned land for oil, natural gas, timber, coal, geothermal, etc - producers report how much is produced (barrels, cubic feet, etc); pipelines report inputs and outputs; refiners report how much they receive from pipelines & extractors, and so on and so on. It is all matched with an audit-by-exception system to designed to identify discrepancies and investigate for fraud.
The Audit-by-exception system is successfully used by social welfare entities as well.
Thank you. That is fascinating and exactly the sort of information I was looking for. So is it safe to say that the people who have not been discovered by these systems have just "gotten lucky"?
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