Finding No. 2022 012: Special Tests and Provisions (Material Weakness) Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services AL Number and Title: 93.558 and COVID 19 ? 93.558 ? Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Award Number and Award Year: 1601HITAN3, 2001HITANF, 2101HITANF, 2201HITANF, 2021G990228 Condition We selected a non statistical sample of 14 participant files for testing out of a population of 138 participant files that were initially determined by the Title IV-D agency as not cooperating with the child support enforcement requirements. We noted 3 files did not contain any correspondence, notices, or documentation to indicate whether any follow up action, up to and including case closure and cessation of benefits, were performed. Views of Responding Officials: The Department agrees with the finding and will implement corrective action; however, notes the following: Based on my review of the selected cases, particularly the cases that were properly closed due to non-compliance with child support requirements, I found that the Processing Centers received hard-copy notifications from the Child Support Enforcement Agency (?CSEA?). The three cases indicated as having no closure notices, there were no hard-copy notifications found in the clients? electronic case files. The referrals to CSEA are done through an interface between the HAWI and CSEA's KEIKI systems. When a recipient is determined non-compliant by CSEA, the information is sent via the interface from KEIKI to HAWI in the form of a system-generated alert. This process worked well when application processing and maintenance of recipient cases were done in a case management method (e.g., each eligibility worker assigned to process applications and/or maintain a caseload of active cases). This method, eligibility workers would manage their caseloads and check for incoming alerts for cases assigned to them; these alerts would include the CSEA non-compliant alerts coming from KEIKI system. Workers were able to take appropriate and timely action in response to the alerts received. However, necessary changes were made to how applications and active cases are managed. The division stopped the case management method and converted to "task-oriented" processing statewide. Workers are no longer assigned to caseloads but are assigned to "tasks" such as processing applications, incoming documents/verifications, reported changes, six-month review and annual recertifications, etc. A case is not reviewed and worked in HAWI until a worker is prompted to do so, e.g., six-month review, annual recertification, change was reported by the household, or when a document pertaining to a case is received by the Processing Center such as hard-copy notice sent from CSEA indicating a client did not comply with child support requirements. When any one of these occur, then the worker who is assigned to that task will check for alerts for the case. Aside from that, recipient cases are not reviewed. So how the "alerts" were developed in HAWI no longer works for the way we currently process applications and maintain cases. We are unable to modify the HAWI system because we are currently developing a new eligibility system that will replace HAWI. Corrective Action Taken or Planned: We created an ad hoc report to identify Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF) recipient cases that received the HAWI alert, ?REASON [Numeric Code]: CLIENT FAILED TO COOPERATE W/CSEU ON [mmddyyyy]?, generated by the interface with the KEIKI system. The report identifies cases by Case Number, Case Name, and assigned Processing Center. The program office will disseminate the list to the Processing Centers to take appropriate and timely action. The ad hoc report will be requested from the Department?s Office of Information and Technology (?OIT?) and disseminated monthly. Expected Completion Date: On-going Responding Official: Catherine Scardino, Benefit, Employment, and Support Services Division Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program Administrator