Virginia local governments mishandle the cases for about one of every five welfare-to-work participants, often failing to strip benefits from recipients who stopped looking for work, a state audit found.
The thousands of errors threaten Virginia’s compliance with federal regulations that require states to reduce or terminate assistance to low-income families if an individual in the family refuses to work, said a recently released Auditor of Public Accounts report. The mistakes put the state at risk of being assessed financial penalties from Washington.
The revelation comes after state lawmakers had a lengthy discussion this session on whether to require some welfare recipients to undergo drug testing to receive benefits. Those bills were ultimately shelved for at least a year because a financial analysis determined that drug testing would cost more money than it would save.
Apparently, the state could save money by better administering the system in place, although auditors did not report how much money was lost. The state spent $8.8 million on welfare benefits in January.
A family of four with a minor child is eligible for financial aid under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program if they earn less than $563 a week. Under the program, a family member must participate in the Virginia Initiative for Employment Not Welfare, under which they would get help finding a job that would allow them to stop relying on the welfare program.
There are about 14,000 individuals enrolled in the employment program.
The Virginia Department of Social Services found local offices mishandled 21 percent of those cases in fiscal 2011 by failing to cut benefits to people who refused to join the welfare-to-work program. The audit also charged that the state agency was not following up with its local affiliates to ensure compliance with the rules.
Social Services officials vowed to review local records on a monthly basis to help eliminate problems. But the onus remains on local governments to make sure they are properly administering this programs, said state auditor Walter Kucharski.
The issue isn’t isolated to Social Services. Another audit found that Virginia improperly doled out up to $5 million in Medicaid payments last year because local officials failed to verify beneficiaries’ Social Security numbers.
“Everyone is consistently finding there are errors at the local level,” Kucharski said. “The department tells them to clean up their act, but if they don’t there’s limited penalties.”
