10:87-3.13 State Income and Eligibility Verification System

(a) DFD shall maintain and use the Income and Eligibility Verification System (IEVS) as specified in this section. By means of IEVS, DFD shall request wage and benefit information from the agencies identified below and use that information in verifying eligibility for, and the amount of, NJ SNAP benefits due to eligible households. 1. Such information shall be requested and used with respect to all household members, including any excluded household members, as specified at N.J.A.C. 10:87-7.7, whenever the SSNs of such included household members are available. (If not otherwise documented, DFD shall obtain written agreements from those information provider agencies that they shall not record any information about individual NJ SNAP households and that staff of those agencies are subject to the disclosure restrictions at N.J.A.C. 10:87-1.14). 2. The wage and benefit information available through IEVS are: i. Wage information maintained by the State Wage Information Collection Agency (SWICA); ii. Information about net earnings from self-employment, wages, and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data, retirement payments and unearned income maintained by the SSA and available pursuant to sections 6103(1)(7)(A) and (B) of the IRS Code; Federal retirement, survivors, disability, SSI and related benefit information available from the SSA; and iii. Claim information from the agency administering Unemployment Insurance Benefits (UIB) and any information, in addition to information about wages and UIB, which is useful for verifying eligibility and benefits, subject to the provisions and limitations of section 303(d) of the Social Security Act. (b) DFD shall exchange information with other State agencies administering certain other programs in the IEVS about NJ SNAP households' circumstances which may be of use in establishing or verifying eligibility and/or benefits under the program. CSSAs may exchange information with agencies in other states when they determine that the same objectives are likely to be met. 1. These programs are: i. Work First New Jersey/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (WFNJ/TANF); ii. Medicaid; iii. Unemployment Compensation (UC); iv. NJ SNAP; and v. Any State program administered under a plan approved under Title I, X, or XIV (the adult categories), or Title XVI of the Social Security Act. 2. DFD shall provide information to people administering the Child Support Program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act) and Titles II (Federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Benefits) and XVI (Supplemental Security Income for the Aged, Blind, and Disabled) of the Social Security Act. (c) The CSSA shall use information obtained from IEVS for the purposes of: 1. Verifying a household's eligibility; 2. Verifying the proper amount of benefits; 3. Investigating to determine whether participating households received benefits to which they were not entitled; and 4. Obtaining information which will be used in conducting criminal or civil prosecutions based on receipt of benefits to which participating households are not entitled. (d) CSSAs shall request through DFD, and use information about members of all applicant households as specified below: 1. Information shall be requested at the next available opportunity after the date of application even if the applicant household has been determined eligible by that time. Information about members of applicant households who cannot provide SSNs at application shall be requested at the next available opportunity after the CSSA is notified of the household members' SSNs. Information received within the 30-day application period shall be used to determine household eligibility and benefits if the information is received timely enough. However, CSSAs shall make eligibility and benefit determinations without waiting for receipt of IEVS data to conform with the promptness standards at N.J.A.C. 10:87-2.26. Information received after an eligibility determination has been made shall be used as specified in (e) and (f) below. 2. Information from the SWICA, SSA, IRS, and claim information from the agency administering UIB shall be requested and used as specified in (d)1 above. Requests to SWICAs shall access the most recent SWICA data available. Requests to SSA and IRS shall be submitted according to procedures specified by those organizations. 3. Any information, other than wage and UIB which UC agencies may have and that DFD determines would be useful in verifying eligibility or benefits of applicant households, shall be requested by methods and at intervals to which DFD and UC agencies agree, and shall be used as specified in paragraph (d)1 above; and 4. Exchanges of information about applicant households with other programs specified in (b) above shall be made as the DFD and other programs may agree. (e) Except as provided in (e)7 below, with respect to all members of recipient households, DFD shall: 1. Request information from the SWICA quarterly, such requests shall include all households which participated in any month of the quarter; 2. Request information about household members from SSA data bases no later than the second month of the certification period, when requests at application did not establish automatic reporting to the CSSA of changes in SSA data. Requests shall be submitted according to procedures specified by the SSA; 3. Request information from IRS annually for all current recipients. Requests shall be submitted to IRS according to procedures specified by the IRS; 4. Exchange information with other programs specified in paragraph (a) above as the DFD and these other programs may agree; 5. Request information about UIB from the agency administering that program as follows: i. For all household members about whom requests at application indicate no receipt of UIB, information shall be requested for the three months following the month of application or until the receipt of UIB is reported, whichever is earlier; and ii. For all household members who report a loss of employment, information shall be requested for the three months following the month the loss is reported or when it is considered verified upon receipt of UIB, SDX, Social Security, and so forth, whichever is earlier; and 6. Request from UC agencies any information other than UIB information which DFD determines would be useful in verifying eligibility or benefits of recipient households. Requests shall be made by methods and at intervals to which the DFD and the UC agencies agree. 7. Under certain conditions DFD may exclude from the requests for information specified in this subsection those members of recipient households who are participating in one of the other programs listed in (b) above. The conditions for such exclusion are that: i. The agency responsible for administering the other program is requesting and acting on information on NJ SNAP recipients who are participating in that program as required by the pertinent regulations for that program, including any concerning selective criteria for follow-up action; ii. The other program agency agrees to inform the CSSA of the information obtained from its follow-up action when that information shows discrepancies between actual circumstances of NJ SNAP recipients and circumstances known by the other program agency; iii. The other program agency agrees to make available, at the request of the CSSA, information about NJ SNAP recipients that it did not follow up on; and iv. The follow-up action taken by the other program agency is at least as beneficial as similar action would be if taken by the CSSA. (f) With respect to information received as a result of requests made according to (e) above, CSSAs shall initiate and pursue actions according to the specific attachment to the State Plan of Operation. 1. CSSA action on information items about recipient households shall include: i. Reviewing the information and comparing it to case record information; ii. For all new or previously unverified information received, contacting the households to resolve discrepancies as specified in (d) and (e) above. iii. If discrepancies warrant reducing benefits or terminating eligibility, sending out notices of adverse action. 2. CSSAs shall initiate and pursue the actions specified above so that they are completed within 45 days of receipt of the information. Actions may be completed later than 45 days from the receipt of information on no more than 20 percent of the information if: i. The only reason that the actions cannot be completed is the nonreceipt of verification requested from collateral contacts; and ii. The actions are completed, as specified in N.J.A.C. 10:87-9.5, when verification from a collateral contact is received or, in conjunction with the next case action, when such verification is not received, whichever is earlier. 3. When the actions specified in (f)1 above substantiate an overissuance, CSSAs shall take action on claims as specified at N.J.A.C. 10:87-11.20. 4. State agencies shall use appropriate procedures to monitor the timeliness requirements in (f)2 above. 5. Except for the claims actions specified in (f)3 above, under the conditions of (e)7 above, CSSAs may exclude from the actions required in (f) above, information items pertaining to household members who are participating in one of the other programs listed in (b) above. (g) IEVS information and quality control responsibilities are: 1. In compliance with Federal regulations, the DFD uses an administrative system (IEVS) to measure the extent and number of, and occasion and basis for, errors of benefit issuance and/or eligibility in the program. 2. The CSSA shall be responsible for investigating and then initiating and implementing actions designed to bring the incidence of errors, as established by DFD's Bureau of Quality Control, within certain pre-set tolerance limits. History HISTORY: New rule, R.1989 d.121, effective February 21, 1989. See: 20 N.J.R. 2689(a), 21 N.J.R. 511(b). Amended by R.1999 d.6, effective January 4, 1999. See: 30 N.J.R. 3451(a), 31 N.J.R. 69(a). In (b)1i, substituted a reference to WFNJ/TANF for a reference to AFDC. Amended by R.2004 d.181, effective May 17, 2004. See: 36 N.J.R. 28(a), 36 N.J.R. 2425(a). In (d), amended the N.J.A.C. reference and deleted "paragraphs" preceding "(e) and (f) below" in 1; in (e)5, substituted "when it is considered verified upon receipt of UIB, SDX, Social security, and so forth" for "until the receipt of UIB is reported" in ii and deleted iii; in (f), amended the N.J.A.C. reference in 3. Administrative change. See: 44 N.J.R. 1529(a).