Title 16
7000 Cash Assistance Overpayments and Food Stamp Claims
7007 Submission of Food Stamp Payments
ARMS will retain the value of funds collected for inadvertent household errors, intentional Program violation, or administrative error claims. This amount includes the total value of allotment reductions to collect claims, but does not include the value of benefits not issued as a result of a household member being disqualified. The State's letter of credit will be amended on a quarterly basis to reflect the State's retention of 25 percent of the value of inadvertent household error claims collected and 50 percent of the value of intentional Program violation claims collected, as well as full retention by FNS of all administrative error overissuance recoveries.
ARMS will submit quarterly a Form FNS-209, Status of Claims Against Households, no later than 30 days after the end of each calendar year quarter, even if no payments have been collected. In accounting for inadvertent household error and intentional Program violation claims, collection, cash, or coupon repayments and the value of allotments recovered or offset by restoration of lost benefits will be included. However, the value of benefits not issued during the period of disqualification will not be considered recovered allotments and will not be used to offset an intentional Program violation claim.
ARMS may retain any amounts recovered on a claim being handled as an inadvertent household error claim prior to obtaining a determination by an administrative disqualification hearing official or a Court of appropriate jurisdiction that intentional Program violation was committed at the rate applicable to intentional Program violation claims, once the determination or signed document is obtained. In such cases, ARMS must include a note in an attachment to the FNS-209 showing the additional amounts being retained on amounts already recovered as a result of the change in status of the claim.
If a household has overpaid a claim, ARMS is to pay the household any amounts overpaid as soon as possible after the overpayment becomes known. The household will be paid by whatever method ARMS deems appropriate considering the household's circumstances. A refund is prohibited when a balance adjustment using expunged EBT benefits is responsible for the over-collection. Overpaid amounts of a claim which have previously been reported as collected via the FNS-209 and which have been repaid to the household will be reported in the appropriate column on the FNS-209 for the quarter in which the repayment occurred. The amount of the repayment will be subtracted from the total amount collected. The appropriate retention rate will be applied to the reduced collection total.
In cases where the State has been billed by FNS for negligence, any amounts collected from households which were caused by the State's negligence will be credited by FNS. When submitting these payments, ARMS must include a note as an attachment to the FNS-209 showing the amount that should be credited against the State's bill.
