Report 2009-101 Recommendation 11 Responses

Report 2009-101: Department of Social Services: For the CalWORKs and Food Stamp Programs, It Lacks Assessments of Cost-Effectiveness and Misses Opportunities to Improve Counties' Antifraud Efforts (Release Date: November 2009)

Recommendation #11 To: Social Services, Department of

This recommendation has been superseded by a recommendation from a subsequent report. See 2015-503 #8.

Social Services should either ensure that counties follow state regulations regarding the use of administrative disqualification hearings or pursue changing the regulations.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From August 2015

Draft of the All County Letter is in progress.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: See 2015-503 #8 for the most current assessment


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2014

CDSS has concluded that, at this time, there is no need for regulation changes. However, CDSS has determined that a more effective approach to improve the use of ADHs is through statewide training. In addition to training that was conducted in late 2013, CDSS has considered this an ongoing effort and provided additional trainings in 2014.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented

Social Services did not provide any evidence that it has provided the training it references in its response.


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2013

Fully Implemented: October 2013. The CDSS conducted statewide training on ADH's on October 9-10, 2013, and will train Northern California Appeals supervisors on November 15, 2013. Following these sessions, the training materials will be made available to all counties. In addition, CDSS will assist by identifying key contacts in each county who are available to share best practices for ADH hearings. These best practices will also be shared at Northern and Southern Appeals Committees. CDSS will work to develop training materials and establish regional training for county staff on the ADH process. Counties identified as having low ADH and Intentional Program Violation disqualifications will be contacted and training and support will be provided for their staff.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented

Despite our requests, Social Services did not provide any documentation to substantiate its claim of full implementation. Social Services' response also indicates that it needs to take additional actions to implement our recommendation.


Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2012

The internal workgroup to develop improvements to the administrative disqualification hearing (ADH) process has not been convened due to limited staff resources and other workload priorities. Development of the All County Information Notice (ACIN) to remind counties of the state mandate to use the ADH process has been put on hold pending the establishment of the workgroup. In order to complete other recommendations identified in this report, CDSS anticipates convening the workgroup no earlier than Fall, 2013.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Not Fully Implemented


All Recommendations in 2009-101

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.