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Page | 87 Before disqualifying the AR, written notification must be provided to the affected household(s) and the AR 30 days prior to the date of disqualification. The notice must include the:  Proposed action;  Reason for the proposed action;  Household's right to request a fair hearing;  Telephone number of the office; and,  Person to contact for more information. Once a person is disqualified as an AR for a particular case, the benefits specialists should narrate this on the case and flag the case for one year, so that if the household wants to name this person as an AR again, they can do so after the year has expired.

If there is no other AR available for the household, the benefits specialist should discuss with the supervisor and a special exception may be allowed to have this person as the authorized representative. Special consideration should be taken to determine if the household is in need of an AR or not.

This provision is not applicable in the case of drug and alcohol treatment centers and the community support provider (CSP) facilities which act as ARs for their residents.

4800 SEPARATION OF DUTIES

In order to safeguard certification and issuance of benefits from unauthorized creation or tampering, Benefits Specialists who have permission to approve eligibility determinations, will not have the ability to issue EBT cards. Benefits Specialists may have query permissions for the EBT system but will not have the ability to issue cards.