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Child Care Assistance Program Policy Manual Issued 08/2022 Amount of overpayment 14.6 To determine the amount of child care assistance the family and/or provider were actually eligible to receive, examine the following: • Eligibility • Copayment amount in billing • Authorized hours • Payment amount. Policies change over time. Consider the policies in place at the time an action took place when determining whether an overpayment occurred and the amount of an overpayment. In some instances, changes to a family’s case that occurred before a policy changed but were processed after a policy changed may be subject to new policies. This may be appropriate and is not an overpayment. When calculating an overpayment, use the maximum rates and copays in effect at the time care was provided. See Chapter 9.24.3 (Child Care Rates, Registration Fees, Copayments) for links to current and expired maximum rates and copayment schedules. Determining the overpayment Amount of overpayment The amount of the overpayment is the difference between the child care assistance payments that the family and/or provider received and the child care assistance payments that the family and/or provider were actually eligible to receive. See Chapter 14.1 (Assessing overpayments). When to assess an overpayment Assess an overpayment if a family and/or provider receives more child care assistance than they were actually eligible for if the overpayment occurred: • Solely as a result of family and/or provider actions or errors. • Because of a combination or agency error and family or provider actions or errors. Do not assess an overpayment if a family and/or provider receives more child care assistance than they were actually eligible for solely because of agency error. Timeframe of overpayment Do not assess overpayments that occurred more than six years before the overpayment was determined, unless fraud is established. See Chapter 13 (Fraud disqualifications) and Chapter 14.1 (Assessing overpayments). An overpayment is determined on the date the agency computes the overpayment, which is also the “established date.” See definitions of “determined date” and “established date” in Chapter 2 (Glossary). A non- fraud overpayment cannot start more than six years before its established date. For example, an overpayment determined on August 1, 2021 that did not result from fraud cannot go back farther than August 1, 2015. Fraud overpayments must be assessed and collected regardless of timeframe.