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LIHEAP MANUAL JANUARY 2022 23

SECTION 400 PROGRAM INTERGRITY

401 BACKGROUND The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program Federal Statute requires that regulations are in place to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of the program. The LIHEAP Statue, section 96.87, revised October 1, 1996, adds to the Block Grant Regulations, a provision which requires grantees to establish appropriate systems and procedures to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in activities funded through the Energy Assistance Program. 401.1 BASIC CONSIDERATIONS In compliance with the regulation to prevent or detect overpayments, the Energy Assistance Subsystem provides statewide information by Federal Fiscal Year on the Approved Payment Inquiry Screen and the Multi-Key Search Screen to prevent a second benefit from being issued to an applicant. The EAP system also has programming coded into the system to prevent payments to duplicate addresses, social security numbers and household vendor accounts within the same Fiscal Program Year. If a person knowingly and willfully falsifies information, conceals a material fact or makes a fraudulent statement to obtain a benefit from the Program that the household is not eligible to receive, it is considered an overpayment. (Refer to Section 31 on the Application Form 6000) Types of Overpayments: • A household receives more than one energy assistance benefit from the same program component within a program year. • A household receives a benefit amount for more than they are eligible to receive. • An ineligible household (example: over income because not all income was reported). • Agency error. If any type of suspected overpayment is discovered; it must be reported within 10 calendar days in writing to the Agency’s designated Program Manager. Using internal Agency procedures, investigate the situation to find out if the overpayment is valid. If an overpayment exists, a claim must be established to recoup the funds. A claim is the payment of a debt that must be collected or recouped.