713.01 Intentional Program Violation (IPV) (FAM)

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The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) pursues Intentional Program Violations (IPVs).

*An individual has committed an IPV by acting for the purpose of establishing or maintaining the family’s FANF eligibility, increasing the grant, or preventing a reduction in the grant, by doing any of the following:

• intentionally providing false or misleading information;

• failing or refusing to report a change in household circumstances; or

• purposely committing any act that violates any public assistance or Food Stamp Program regulations, or any state statute relating to said programs.

Example

An individual applied for FANF and Food Stamp benefits on April 2 claiming no employment and was certified for 3 months. Two months later an NHES crossmatch showed that the individual had actually become employed on April 1. The *SIU confronted the individual, who agreed to sign a waiver of right to an administrative disqualification hearing (ADH).

Only one of the following can officially establish an IPV:

• an individual’s plea of guilty;

• an individual’s plea of nolo contendere to a criminal charge;

• a guilty finding by a court of appropriate jurisdiction;

• the *individual’s signing of a waiver of right to an ADH;

• an *ADH through the *Administrative Appeals Unit (AAU); or

• a signed consent agreement approved by the prosecuting authority.

*

If the same violation was repeated over a continuous period of time before discovery, consider each occurrence as belonging to one violation.

Any IPV action taken by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) against an accused individual in a FANF case is coordinated with any action being taken under the Food Stamp Program when the factual issues arise from the same or related circumstances.