Finding 1029606 (2022-006)

U.S. Department of Health and Human ServicesPassed through the NC Department of Health and Human ServicesProgram Name: IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance ClusterAL #: 93.658, 93.659Finding: 2022-006 Incorrect Family Assistance Unit DeterminationSIGNIFICANT DEFICENCYReportingCriteria: In accordance with the Child Welfare Manual, Foster Care Funding Appendix 3.5, The composition of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) family assistance unit must be determined first in establishing whether the child is financially needy. The family assistance unit is defined as a group of individuals whose income, resources, and needs are considered as a unit for purposes of determining AFDC eligibility. It consists of the child, natural or adoptive parents and the blood or adoptive siblings living in the same household. If the child lives with a specified relative other than a parent, the family unit will consist of only the child and any siblings that also live with the same specified relative.Condition: There were 10 errors discovered during our procedures that the family assistance unit was determined incorrectly.Questioned Costs: There was no known affect to eligibility and there were no known questioned costs.Context: We examined 12 cases from 113 IV-E Foster Care Assistance applicants to re-determine eligibility. These findings are being reported with the financial statement audit a it relates to IV-E Foster Care administrative costs compliance audit.Effect: For those eligibility determination and re-determination, there was a chance that information was not properly documented and reconciled to North Carolina Families Accessing Services through Technology (NCFAST) and a participant could have been approved for benefits for which they were not eligible.Cause: Rockingham started to use NC FAST for the Child Welfare as a pilot county, the system was initially not designed intuitively or in a way that was easy to use. There were multiple system issues in the area of FC Financials (including issues with printed forms & documentation) until the Fund Eligibility process was resolved in January of 2020, along with a system update completed in November of 2020 to provide the ability for users to now reassess the CW Fund Eligibility. Due to the system functionality issues, the case workers were not able to enter and document the household relationship properly.Recommendation: Workers should be retrained on NCFAST functions to ensure accurate and complete information is entered into system. Files should be reviewed internally to ensure proper documentation is in place for eligibility.Views of responsible officials and planned corrective actions: The county agrees with the finding. Please refer to the corrective action plan for details.