NORWICH – In an effort to reduce instances of fraud and welfare abuse, the Chenango County Department of Social Services has adopted changes to its finger printing system that it says will help track down individuals who are questioned of cheating the system.
Last month, DSS became one of eight counties in the state to sign up for a notification feature that’s available within the statewide Automated Finger Imaging System, or AFIS. By using the feature, the DSS investigation unit can request to be notified when a certain individual who is under investigation for fraud or abuse seeks help from another department. Notifications make the fraud unit aware of that person being in the building.
AFIS notifications connect the fraud unit to all departments in the agency that are susceptible to fraud or abuse, including SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly Food Stamps), Temporary Assistance, and Home Energy Assistance.
“This will help us connect a certain person with the unit that’s looking for them,” explained DSS Deputy Commissioner Daniel Auwarter. “There have been many situations where the fraud unit is trying to conduct an investigation on a person for various reasons. Maybe they’re not returning calls or we can’t verify an address or they could be homeless; so they’re having difficulty connecting with the person. If that person is here in the building, this system helps make sure that they can connect.”
The AFIS notifications feature, which was only recently rolled out by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance in May, transcends county borders too. That means if neighboring counties – Broome County, for example – also signed up for the feature, then the Chenango County fraud department would get notifications if someone who is under investigations is seeking support from Broome County Social Services.
Only eight counties in New York have agreed to AFIS notifications to date: Cortland, Franklin, Orleans, Oswego, Schenectady, Schoharie, Tompkins, and Wyoming. Being a relatively new feature in the AFIS system, Auwarter said there’s a chance more counties will follow suit in the future as they find ways to reduce instances of welfare fraud and save local tax dollars.
“If someone is on assistance for a year when they weren’t supposed to be, that can amount to quite a bit of money,” Auwarter added. “And if it’s someone with a safety net, then 71 percent of that cost is local tax dollars, so it is substantial because even one or two cases can add up to some pretty significant dollars if they’re caught early.”
From 1995 to 2012, SNAP applicants were required to participate in AFIS. State law has changed since then and SNAP-only recipients are no longer required to be fingerprinted even though the requirement remains for people applying for cash assistance.
In Chenango County, there are currently 413 active temporary assistance (welfare) cases, 221 of which are federally funded through the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program; and 192 are Safety Net cases, which are a combination of state funds (29 percent) and local funds (71 percent).
Chenango County DSS presently averages 16 temporary assistance applications per week – down slightly from 20 applications per week in 2014. All applicants for temporary assistance must comply with AFIS to have a case opened.
“How often will the AFIS notifications system be used here? Not as often as in big counties,” said Auwarter. “But it is one more way for us to make sure that we’re making those connections as quickly as we can to resolve fraud referrals.”