Attachment H. Frequently Asked Question

Attachment H

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

OMB CONTROL NO.: 0584-NEW

EXPIRATION DATE: 00/00/20XX

FAQ’s About the
National Survey of State SNAP Data Matching Methods

What is the purpose of this survey? Under The Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act of 2010 (IPERA), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is conducting a research study to assess the use of data matching for SNAP in each State. The purpose of the survey is to assess the degree to which States are using data matching strategies for SNAP. Data matching means comparing the data you have on a SNAP application/recipient to data from another source. Data matching provides an important tool to verify SNAP participant financial and non-financial information for the purposes of program integrity, program administration, and simplified processing. This study will conduct a census of all 53 SNAP State Agencies to catalog and describe how States are currently using or planning to use data matching strategies to reduce recipient fraud, payment errors, and administrative burden for both applicants and eligibility workers. The assessment will also quantify the cost of computer matching and estimate the number of matches by system.

What type of information are you collecting? This is a voluntary data collection, the survey will collect information such as your State’s reasons for performing data-matching, the particular data sources your State uses, the process your State uses to verify matches, and cost information associated with the data-matching systems and procedures.

Who is conducting this study? The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service hired Avar Consulting, supported by Mathematica Policy Research, as the contracting evaluator.

Can someone else complete the survey for me? / I don’t know the answers to all of the questions. We want to make sure we receive responses from the most knowledgeable persons in your agency. If you do not know all the answers, you may distribute the survey to other staff persons who are knowledgeable about topics covered in the survey and ask them to complete the rest. There are no penalties if you choose not to participate in part or in whole.

How long will the survey take to complete? The survey will take approximately 15-70 minutes depending on the number of data sources and systems that the State uses for data matching.

Are you going to share my answers with anyone? If you distribute the survey to other staff members to complete, any previously recorded responses on the survey will be viewable, but not changeable by other representatives. The survey contains no questions of a private nature. You will not be personally identified in any publications or outside the research team, except as otherwise required by law, and responses will be aggregated so that it will not be possible to identify individual respondents.

Whom can I call at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service to verify that this is an official survey? If you have further questions, you may e-mail the FNS Project Officer, Danielle Deemer, at danielle.deemer@fns.usda.gov or call her at 703-305-2952.

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-NEW. The time required to read this document is estimated to average .0501 hours. Send comments regarding this burden estimate to the Office of Policy Support, Food and Nutrition Service, USDA, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 1014, Alexandria, VA 22302.

FNS SNAP Supporting Statement, Attachment H 2