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Iowa LIHEAP Policy and Procedures Manual 4.00 Applications

Effective 09/01/2023

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Agencies must have a current contract with their software vendor that covers the following: Integrity of electronic signatures, standards of document integrity, emergency planning, document administration and retention schedule, standards for backups, and disposal of storage media.

4.70 Application Review CAAs are responsible for final review of applications for completeness and accuracy. If assistance has been provided due to agency error, the agency is responsible for repayment and/or recovery of ineligible benefits.

4.80 Separation of Duties To ensure there is no conflict of interest, or appearance thereof, there must be proper separation of duties when processing and verifying applications. For instance, the person who took an application CANNOT also review the same application (must have separation of duties).

Agency staff cannot process and/or verify applications for family members, friends, or neighbors.

4.90 Determination Letter Applicants who have applied for LIHEAP Regular Assistance must be provided with a determination letter. The letter may be a hard copy that is presented to the applicant in-person or sent by mail, emailed to the applicant with a “read receipt” from the email address (maintained electronically in the file), texted (screenshot of text maintained in file), or provided to the application via a secure online portal.

If there is a change in the LIHEAP Regular Assistance benefit from the original determination letter that was issued to the LIHEAP customer (whether it is an increase or decrease in benefit), a revised award letter is to be sent (hard copy or electronic) to the LIHEAP customer.

Once a LIHEAP customer has applied and been approved for LIHEAP Regular Assistance, another application cannot be submitted until the next fiscal year, even if their income changes.

If a LIHEAP customer applied and was denied assistance, The LIHEAP customer may re-apply until approved, if circumstances changed (there is no limit to the number of times a LIHEAP customer may re- apply for assistance).