Instead, most agencies rely on food stamp applicants to provide accurate household information and to report subsequent changes, such as the incarceration of a household member. After this matching program was implemented, some caseworkers charged that much of the information provided in the IEVS matches did not lead to savings in the Food Stamp Program. Prisoners’ participation in the Food Stamp Program resulted in overpayments of $3.5 million for the locations where we conducted matches. A computer match of data on states’ food stamp participants and verified inmates could be a cost-effective method for identifying a prisoner’s participation in a food stamp household and thus provide the evidence needed to remove the prisoner from the calculation of a household’s eligibility and benefits. Recommendations

To identify state and county prisoners who are included as members of households receiving food stamps, we recommend that the Secretary of Agriculture actively encourage states to implement periodic computer matches of data on state and local prison inmates with data on participants in the Food Stamp Program. Specifically, we determined (1) how many prisoners were included as members of households that received food stamp benefits and the estimated value of improper benefits that were issued to the households, (2) how prisoner participation could take place without detection, and (3) whether computer matching can be an effective method for identifying prisoner participation. Food stamp benefits are calculated for households, not for individuals. To determine why prisoner participation was not detected, we asked FCS to identify state or local agencies that collect prison data and compare that data with data on food stamp recipients to identify prisoner participation. A recorded menu will provide information on how to obtain these lists.
Why GAO Did This Study

GAO provided information on Food Stamp Program overpayments, focusing on: (1) how many prisoners were included as members of households that received food stamp benefits, hereafter referred to as prisoner participation, and the estimated value of improper benefits that were issued to the households; (2) how prisoner participation could take place without detection; and (3) whether computer matching can be an effective method for identifying prisoner participation.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) despite federal regulations prohibiting inmates of correctional institutions from participating in the Food Stamp Program, GAO identified 12,138 inmates in the areas it examined who were included in households receiving food stamps; (2) these households improperly collected an estimated $3.5 million in food stamp benefits; (3) prisoner participation goes undetected because agencies generally do not verify the information on household membership provided by food stamp applicants; (4) furthermore, according to officials of the Department of Agriculture's Food Stamp Program, most state or local agencies responsible for administering the program do not routinely collect and review lists of individuals incarcerated in state and local facilities to determine whether any of these individuals are being counted as members of food stamp households; (5) given the program's reliance on client-provided information, computer matching of lists of prisoners and food stamp household members provides a straightforward and potentially effective mechanism to accurately and independently identify prisoners' participation; and (6) while states have implemented various computer matching routines, such as the Income and Eligibility Verification System, which compares data on welfare clients with data on state and federal wages and benefits, many states have not yet implemented a computer matching program to identify prisoners participating in the Food Stamp Program.