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Page | 95 CHAPTER SIX: NARRATIVE

6000 NARRATIVE

6100 DOCUMENTATION

The SNAP narrative must have sufficient documentation to support eligibility, ineligibility, and benefit level determinations. Documentation must be in sufficient detail to permit a reviewer to reasonably determine the basis for and the accuracy of the case action.

The following should be documented thoroughly in the narrative: 1. How was the information verified? 2. If information is questionable, why is it questionable? 3. If information provided is inconsistent, why is it inconsistent? 4. What was used to resolve the questionable information? 5. If an alternate source of verification was needed, such as a collateral contact, who or what was the alternate source of verification. 6. If verbal verification was obtained, thorough documentation of the person who verified the information along with any contact information for that person must be in the narrative. The information should include the name, date, and telephone number of the individual who provided the information.

In addition to the mandatory verification and documentation discussed in this section, narratives must contain the following: 1. The method used to identify the household member or authorized representative interviewed. 2. A record that the customer was advised of DSS's fair hearing, nondiscrimination, and other policies required during the interview. 3. Clarification of all discrepancies in information between the application form completed by the customer, previous case information, and the benefits specialist’s information gathered in the interview. 4. A record of all forms and correspondence to the customer, including dates, if copies are not in the case file.

Narratives should not contain acronyms that are not commonly used in DSS circles. Narratives are key in understanding what is happening in a case and if acronyms are used that are not commonly known, it is difficult to determine what is happening in the case.

6200 TYPES OF NARRATIVES

There are three types of case narratives: 1. Application/renewal narratives 2. Monthly/ongoing narratives 3. Six Month report narratives

6210 APPLICATION/RENEWAL NARRATIVE

When entering the application/renewal narrative at the top of the Interview Display are the following fields: “INTVW: __/__/__ “ALTR:” __ “CERT PRD: _____ THRU _____” The INTVW date should be the date the actual interview took place (not the 301 receipt date). The ALTR field is to specify if there is an authorized representative. Enter a “Y” if there is an