A recently released report from the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit found problems with the error rate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — the same program for which Democrat Governor Laura Kelly’s administration has repeatedly refused to turn over data to the federal government.
According to the audit The Kansas Department of Children and Family Services’ SNAP payment error rate has exceeded the federal payment error rate threshold of 6% since 2019.
LPA reviewed fiscal years 2023 and 2024 and found nearly 300 errors — most of them were related to miscalculating an applicant’s income and resources.
LPA said “Staff turnover, the complexity of SNAP eligibility rules, and inconsistent verification efforts appear to be significant factors in the department’s SNAP payment errors.”
However, LPA also said they “identified several hundred additional errors that were not included in the federal payment error rate because the dollar value of the error was less than the federal reporting threshold.”
The eligibility requirements are admittedly complex, including calculations of both gross and net income, and the application runs to 36 pages and over 200 questions — because it also is the application for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and childcare assistance.
Moreover just the manual giving policies for SNAP approval runs to 700 pages.
While some of the 36 page applications are done on line, many are hand written, requiring DCF staff to manually enter the data.
Across the two years, DCF attributed about half of the errors to DCF staff errors. However, the percentage was slightly higher in 2023 (51% in 2023 vs. 45% in 2024). This includes errors such as staff incorrectly prorating benefits, allowing ineligible expenses, and failing to update income.
LPA reviewed all the errors DCF identified, including the ones not reported as part of the federal payment error rate (more than $54 in 2023 and over $56 in 2024.) Across both years LPA reviewed, DCF reviewed 2,165 payments and identified errors with 970 of them (45%). 286 of the errors exceeded the federal threshold and DCF included them in the payment error rate. The remaining 684 payment errors were less than the federal threshold so DCF did not calculate them in the error rate. About half of the unreported errors had a dollar value of $15 or less per month.
According to the audit, LPA found the DCF turnover rate among staff who process applications has been about 30% and that it takes about a year for staff to be fully trained.
According to the report, “DCF uses a ‘prudent person’ standard to determine what information may be questionable which appears to cause some inconsistency. Kansas uses a simplified eligibility determination in which DCF generally accepts the individual statement as the basis of eligibility. Federal rules require some application information to be verified (i.e. identity, citizenship, and income) but many factors are only verified if a ‘prudent person’ would find them questionable or inconsistent with other information on the application. This is a somewhat vague standard and appears to have created some inconsistency in what is verified and how far staff go to verify questionable information.”
DCF said two software changes — which it is pursuing — would help reduce the error rate. One is a “chatbot” assistant to quickly provide the rules to the staff as they are processing the application would likely reduce errors. “For example, it could provide the specific rule for the circumstances under which utility expenses must be verified and what type of verification is acceptable.”
The other is a document processing feature — i.e. scanner software — to scan applicant documents and automatically populate the proper fields. This would, according to DCF, both reduce data entry errors and save staff time.
Kelly admin has refused to turn SNAP eligibility data over to feds
Late last year, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services division followed through on a threat to withhold a roughly $10.4 million payment to the state of Kansas for SNAP benefits.
According to a release from Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, over the weekend, the USDA carried out its threat and took the funds away from Kansas, after the Kelly administration refused to comply with a September 19 deadline to supply basic information about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients in Kansas.
Earlier this month, Kobach sued Kansas Governor Laura Kelly and Department of Children and Families Secretary Laura Howard to force them to turn over data requested by the federal government.
Kelly and Howard have repeatedly refused to turn over enrollment data on the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” to the United States Department of Agriculture, citing “privacy concerns.”
The information the USDA is seeking is the qualifying information DCF must use to determine eligibility for SNAP — names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, home addresses, and “all data records used to determine eligibility,” including income information for those currently receiving food stamps. The Kansas SNAP program provides approximately $417 million in benefits annually and feeds about 188,000 people a month, including around 86,000 children.
While Kelly has cited “privacy concerns” for refusing to turn over the data, at the same time, the state made over $1 million selling driver’s license data.
An obscure federal law, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act of 1994, allows states to profit from the data. KCTV 5 reports Kansas completed transactions last year with R.L. Polk, an automotive data and marketing company, and Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus, to the tune of $1,164,000.
Excerpts of the law define what the state can offer to its customers:
- “Personal Information” means information that identifies an individual, including an individual’s photograph, social security number, driver identification number, name, address (but not the 5-digit zip code), telephone number, and medical or disability information, but does not include information on vehicular accidents, driving violations, and driver’s status.
- “Highly Restricted Personal Information” means an individual’s photograph or image, social security number, medical or disability information, and
- “Express Consent” means consent in writing, including consent conveyed electronically that bears an electronic signature as defined in Section 106(5) of Public Law 106-229.
