Report 2015-503 Recommendation Responses
Report 2015-503: Follow-Up—California Department of Social Services: It Has Not Corrected Previously Recognized Deficiencies in Its Oversight of Counties' Antifraud Efforts for the CalWORKs and CalFresh Programs (Release Date: June 2015)
Recommendation for Legislative Action
Because Social Services will not implement our recommendation to gauge the cost-effectiveness of SFIS, the Legislature should require Social Services to annually report on the cost of SFIS and the fraud that it helps detect. Specifically, the Legislature should require Social Services to annually report to the Legislature the following metrics:
- The annual cost to maintain and operate SFIS
- The total instances of duplicate-aid fraud that counties detect as a result of SFIS and the total amount of overpayments that they recover
- The total backlog of unprocessed SFIS matches as of December 31 of each year
Description of Legislative Action
Senate Bill 89 (Chapter 24, Statutes of 2017), in part, requires Social Services to implement and maintain an automated, nonbiometric identity verification method for the CalWORKs program and report to the Legislature no later than November 1, 2017, regarding options for the design, implementation, and maintenance of the verification method and prescribed criteria. The statute makes SFIS inoperative upon implementation of the nonbiometric identity verification method, if that implementation occurs prior to April 1, 2018, or, if the director of Social Services requires additional time for implementation of that method, upon implementation of that method, or June 30, 2018, whichever is sooner. Because this statute would render SFIS inoperative, this recommendation is no longer necessary.
- Legislative Action Current As-of: June 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Longer Necessary
Description of Legislative Action
Senate Bill 89 (Chapter 24, Statutes of 2017), in part, requires Social Services to implement and maintain an automated, nonbiometric identity verification method for the CalWORKs program and report to the Legislature no later than November 1, 2017, regarding options for the design, implementation, and maintenance of the verification method and prescribed criteria. The statute makes SFIS inoperative upon implementation of the nonbiometric identity verification method, if that implementation occurs prior to April 1, 2018, or, if the director of Social Services requires additional time for implementation of that method, upon implementation of that method, or June 30, 2018, whichever is sooner. Because this statute would render SFIS inoperative, this recommendation is no longer necessary.
- Legislative Action Current As-of: June 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Longer Necessary
Description of Legislative Action
Legislation has not been introduced to address this recommendation.
- Legislative Action Current As-of: January 2016