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S N A P M A N U A L

292 (1) Payment accuracy FNS will divide $24 million among the 10 States with the lowest and the most improved combined payment error rates as specified directly below: (A) Excellence in payment accuracy. FNS will provide bonuses to the 7 States with the lowest combined payment error rates based on the validated quality control payment error rates for the performance measurement year. (B) Most improved in payment accuracy. FNS will provide bonuses to the 3 States with the largest percentage point decrease in their combined payment error rates based on the comparison of the validated quality control payment error rates for the performance measurement year and the previous fiscal year. (2) Negative error rate FNS will divide $6 million among the 6 States with the lowest and the most improved negative error rates as specified directly below: (A) Lowest negative error rate. FNS will provide bonuses to the 4 States with the lowest negative error rates based on the validated quality control negative error rates for the performance year. (B) Most improved negative error rate. FNS will provide bonuses to the 2 States with the largest percentage point decrease in their negative error rates, based on the comparison of the performance measurement year's validated quality control negative error rates with those of the previous fiscal year. A State agency is not eligible for a bonus under this criterion if the State's negative error rate for the fiscal year is more than 50 percent above the national average. (3) Program Access Index (PAI) FNS will divide $12 million among the 8 States with the highest and the most improved level of participation as determined in (C) below. The PAI is the ratio of participants to persons with incomes below 125 percent of poverty. (A) High program access index. FNS will provide bonuses to the 4 States with the highest PAI. (B) Most improved program access index. FNS will provide bonuses to the 4 States with the most improved PAI. (C) Determining the PAI. For the number of participants (numerator), FNS will use the administrative annual counts of participants minus new participants certified under special disaster program rules by State averaged over the calendar year. For the number of people below 125 percent of poverty (denominator), FNS will use the Census Bureau's March Supplement to the Current Population Survey's (CPS) count of people below 125 percent of poverty for the same calendar year. FNS will reduce the count in each State where a