Controlling Errors in Allowance Program Administration. Housing Assistance Supply Experiment

摘要

The Housing Assistance Supply Experiment must control for errors in the administration of fullscale housing allowance programs. This report describes the housing allowance office (HAO) procedures for reducing and controlling error in two metropolitan areas (Brown County, Wis., and St. Joseph County, Ind.,) in (1) means tests (which measure eligibility according to income, assets, and household composition, and specify the amount of the allowance), and (2) requirements (particularly, that recipients live in housing that is decent, safe, and sanitary). First, eligibility data are collected in personal interviews with applicants, who are asked to bring documentation of the information they provide (40 percent successful). All enrollment cases are checked twice for possible staff error, once by a certification specialist, and once by a computerized edit. Second, housing evaluations are conducted by trained evaluators. Computerized and manual reviews of their housing evaluation forms are supplemented by thorough, independent evaluations of a 5 - percent sample of all cases conducted by an evaluation supervisor. Citizens' reports of possible fraud are followed up by special HAO teams. An independent accounting firm conducts full audits of HAO accounting and payment procedures each year. Records of errors caught and corrected in the course of normal operations, along with quality control and audit data, are analyzed to estimate the rates at which errors are made and corrected. In Brown and St. Joseph Counties, HAO error rates were extremely low. The effect of such controls on client dignity are minimal; however, the administrative costs of such procedures are rather high and warrant further research. Tables illustrate the report using data from Brown and St. Joseph Counties. Further research directions are detailed.