4020 Collection Methods | FPRU-3450-MANUAL

Collection action is initiated against an assistance unit (AU) to recover overpayments for which a claim is established.

Collection of overpayments may affect the county’s administrative funds. Coordination with fiscal staff is necessary to manage benefit recovery.

A claim can be repaid by:

An AU may repay a claim in installments through a cashier’s check, money order, personal check or cash payment. The receiving agency must provide a written receipt and file a copy of the receipt with the county or the Centralized Payment Processing Center records. See Field Fiscal Services Policy and Procedures manual for additional information. The Centralized Payment Processing Center prefers that payments are not in cash.

The assistance unit may repay a claim as a lump sum payment through available income and resources or through EBT benefits. The AU is not required to liquidate all its resources in order to make a lump sum payment.

If the assistance unit (AU) is financially unable to pay the entire amount at one time, negotiate a repayment agreement. The AU may make manual payments in addition to monthly recoupment of benefits.

The customer may be ordered by the court to repay the Probation Office who in turn forwards the payments to the county DFCS office or the Centralized Payment Processing Center.

All claims in active cases, except those coded pay to court, are recouped automatically, via benefit reduction. The customer may choose to have a higher amount recouped.

Intention Program Violation (IPV) claims ordered to pay through the court are not automatically recouped. For this claim type, review the payment history at least quarterly. Contact the probation office if payments are not being received. Once the probation period ends, change the claim type to pay “to county”. If the case is active and there is an outstanding claim balance, ensure that there is an ongoing recoupment of benefits.

Additional benefits issued after the initial monthly benefits are released are subject to offset. Underpayments created due to reinstatement or expedited changes are not subject to offset.

State Tax Refunds may be used to offset delinquent Food Stamp and TANF claims.

Delinquent Food Stamp claims are subject to the offset of federal benefits including, but not limited to, federal tax refund, federal salaries, federal retirement and Retirement / Survivor / Disability Income (RSDI).

A debt is defined as delinquent if the initial payment is not received within 30 days of claim authorization, and subsequent payments are due within 30 days from the last payment until the debt is paid in full. A payment received for less than the required monthly amount will result in a delinquent debt.

If a repayment agreement is negotiated, a monthly payment for a lesser amount will not satisfy the agreement and the claim will be considered delinquent.

Payments are applied in the following order:

System programming prohibits deviating from this priority order. Subsequent claim cannot be considered delinquent while regular monthly payments are being received for a prior claim.

Manual payments received that are not designated for a specific program are processed as follows:

Collection action is initiated against the head of the AU. Federal policy states that any adult member of the AU at the time the overpayment occurred is equally responsible for repaying the debt and may be pursued if the head of the AU defaults.

There will be a monthly recoupment of benefits if the AU is receiving benefits. Explain the result of the automatic recoupment on monthly benefits. Stress continued obligation when case closes and possible tax intercepts of other benefit offset if regular monthly payments are not received.

When the case closes and grant reduction ends:

A compromise is a reduction of an initial Food Stamp claim balance due to economic circumstances such that the customer would be able to pay off the claim within a reasonable period.

For AE or IHE claims, customers may request that their claim balance be reduced if they can demonstrate that they have an economic hardship and the claim balance cannot be paid off within 36 to 60 months.

For IPV, the court or Office of State Administrative Hearings must order that the claim be compromised.

Customers may request a compromise of their claim at any time. However, compromise will not cure delinquency or prevent the involuntary collection of the original balance of a delinquent debt.

Requests for compromise are processed by the Office of Inspector General (OIG). TANF claims are not subject to compromise.

Customers who are currently receiving Food Stamp benefits automatically demonstrate economic need. The claim balance may be reduced to an amount that can be repaid within 36-60 months of establishment of the claim via recoupment. The current monthly benefit amount will be used to determine the claim balance that can be repaid via recoupment in the 3 to 5-year period. Document request and forward to OIG for processing.

If a customer requests a compromise and does not have an active Food Stamp case:

Case file should show documentation of customer’s economic situation including income and expenses and calculation of compromised amount.

Documentation must clearly indicate calculation of compromise amount, date claim compromised in Gateway, date customer was mailed a compromise repayment agreement and that customer understands that if the compromise agreement is not honored, the compromised portion of the claim will be reinstated.

Claim payments must be monitored monthly.

A customer must receive written notification of the compromise request decision (approvals/denials).

The AU must retain an amount equal to 95% of the appropriate family maximum for an AE and IHE claims or 90% of the appropriate family maximum for IPV claims. All countable income prior to allowable deductions is included in determining this amount. The entire benefit amount may be subject to offset if the AU has other countable income.

Countable income includes:

Collection will not be suspended during the process of a hearing based on the recoupment amount.

For Work Supplementation cases, suspend the claim to ensure correct notification, that recoupment does not occur, and that the employer receives the entire monthly TANF benefit.

A hardship exemption may be granted if requested by the AU for up to two months with supervisory approval. Suspend collection and track suspension period manually.

Hardship may be granted only once in the life of a claim.

Hardship for court adjudicated IPV claims instructing to pay to the court or in which a consent agreement was signed may be granted only with court approval.

Hardship must be documented in Georgia Gateway.

There is no hardship exemption allowed for Food Stamp claims.

All countable income is considered. When considering TANF income which has been reduced by benefit reduction due to a claim, count the entire entitlement amount (gross) if the TANF claim is IPV. If the claim is an AE or IHE, count the actual (net) TANF amount received.

Recoupment of 10% of the assistance unit’s entitlement or $10, whichever is greater for IHE and AE claims is automatic. Recoupment of 20% of the assistance unit’s entitlement or $20, whichever is greater, is automatic for IPV claims. The formula recoupment is calculated based on the entitlement of all assistance members including IPV or lawbreaker sanctioned assistance unit member.

A debtor may elect to have more than the calculated amount recouped. The system adjusts the recoupment each time there is a change that affects the benefit amount.

Assistance Units with a benefit of less than $10 do not have automatic recoupment activity.

Initial benefits are not recouped.

Valid underpayments to which the assistance unit is entitled are applied to a claim. Reinstated benefits, certain correctives, supplemental benefits and restorations due to expedited Food Stamp changes are not subject to offset. Active claims must be suspended prior to issuance of the underpayments not subject to offset.

Food Stamp benefits posted to an EBT account may be applied to the claim as active, stale, or expunged. Active and stale benefits are posted as claim payments. The current balance of a claim is adjusted when benefits are expunged.

The recipient communicates to county staff a request to have unused Food Stamp benefits applied to the claim. Form 269 is signed and forwarded to the Office of Inspector General, who will move the authorized benefits from the recipient’s EBT account to the claim.

Food Stamp benefits that remain in an EBT account and have not been accessed by the AU for at least 6 months may be applied to the claim. The state initiates a notice to the AU with information giving the amount of the benefits and a 15-day notice that the benefits will be applied to the claim unless accessed prior to the deadline. If there is no response, benefits in an amount up to one month’s issuance are applied by the Office of Inspector General.

Expunged Food Stamp benefits are benefits that have not been accessed by the AU for a specified period. Expunged Food Stamp benefits are no longer available to the AU. However, when a claim is established, any amount previously expunged should be applied to the current claim balance to reduce the debt. Benefits expunged after a claim is established will be automatically applied at the time of expungement. Once expunged benefits have been used to reduce the balance of a claim, the same expunged benefits cannot be used again to reduce the balance of a different claim.

A Food Stamp account expunges after 365 days of no swipes. If a case is approved and this deadline occurs before the customer has a chance to debit the newly approved benefits, ALL benefits will be expunged, including the newly approved benefits. The entire amount must be made available to the household when this occurs.

TANF benefits are assigned to a debit card and are not expunged. Benefits cannot be debited by the state and applied to a debt. Debits intended for use as a claim payment must be manually processed by the customer.