(Revised 07/01/18 ML3528)
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State responsibilities include supervision of certification, issuance and outreach activities, maintenance of Quality Control, quality assurance, a complaint procedures system, statewide fiscal accountability, settlement of claims resulting from fraud and non-fraud claims, and developing, conducting and evaluating statewide training.
Disaster SNAP
The State Emergency SNAP Plan of Operation must be followed when there is a presidentially declared disaster. The State Office will issue instructions.
Training
The State Office is responsible to institute a continuing training program for workers, supervisors, fair hearing officials, and performance reporting system reviewers.
The county is responsible to ensure staff attend training sessions.
North Dakota's open-meeting law and Federal regulations permit attendance of non-employees at training sessions. The role of public participants must be limited to observation only.
Quality Assurance Coordinator
The State Office is required by federal regulations to establish a continuing performance reporting system to monitor program administration and program operations. The components of the system must provide for:
- Data collection through Quality Control reviews and quality improvement reviews (QIR).
- Analysis of data collected by Quality Control and QIR and all other management information sources.
- Corrective action planning.
- Corrective action implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.
- Reporting to FNS on program performance.
QIR
SNAP regulations mandate that the State Office conduct a QIR of all counties. The reviews determine if the counties are administering and operating SNAP in accordance with program requirements contained in the State Policy Manual and the State Issuance Manual. The review must include an examination of random selected casefiles, personnel, training, certification procedures, client services (outreach), reporting/record keeping, security/control, issuance procedures and a physical inventory and reconciliation of EBT cards.
The results of this review assist counties in improving and strengthening the administration and operation of SNAP. The QIR must provide data on how the program is being administered at the local level and identify those areas that are deficient. The county should use the results of the QIR as a basis for corrective action.
Corrective Action Planning
The objectives of corrective action planning are to develop appropriate measures to correct SNAP deficiencies based upon the results of data analysis performed by the Quality Assurance Coordinator.
The State is responsible for the development of two types of corrective action:
- Remedial involves rectifying past errors in individual cases.
- Preventative involves correcting patterns of deficiencies.
Corrective action plans are monitored by county and state personnel to determine if they are completed in a timely manner.
FNS requires identification of counties that are not administering SNAP regulations correctly and require the State Office to initiate corrective action.
Quality Control
A Quality Control system has been established to comply with federal regulations. This system documents the number of and reasons for errors in eligibility and issuance of participating households.
Counties are required to correct case errors cited by Quality Control.
A review is a statistically random sample of active and negative cases to determine if households are receiving correct SNAP benefits and if cases are denied or closed correctly.
Cases reviewed by Quality Control are randomly selected. Matching random digits against the last four digits of the primary individual’s (PI) social security number generates a statewide sample list.
Death and Prisoner Match
The State Office conducts matching on a daily basis with the Social Security Administration to identify individuals who are deceased or in prison.
The county will be advised by state policy staff of any matches that are unclear or require action on the part of the worker.
If the information from the match is unclear the county must send notice F421 – Request for Information – Match Results to the household. The household must be allowed 10 days from the mailing date of F421 to respond and to clarify its circumstances.
The notice must include the name of the individual identified in the match, why the match was unclear, and the required verifications.
If the household does not respond to notice F421 or fails to provide sufficient information to clarify its circumstances, the county must remove the individual identified in the match from the household, advance notice is required.
If the household responds to notice F421, simplified reporting rules apply. The county must notify the state SNAP office with the results of the client’s clarification(s) and the results must be included in the case narrative.
