Sacramento County is very concerned with insuring that benefits are given only to those who are eligible. To maintain program integrity, the Department of Human Assistance has an Investigations Division that is committed solely to preventing and detecting welfare fraud. Remember, welfare fraud is a crime!

The Investigations Division is comprised of four major functional areas: Fraud Investigations, Early Fraud Detection and Prevention (EFDP), Overpayment Computation Unit (OCU) and the Income Eligibility Verifications Systems (IEVS).

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Fraud investigations are conducted by the division's criminal investigators and investigative assistants. Investigation requests are received from the fraud hotline, eligibility workers, letters from concerned citizens, various computer match programs from the California Department of Social Service and other sources and special projects initiated by the division.

The division's criminal investigators are sworn peace officers. In addition to investigating general welfare fraud cases, the division also has investigators assigned to specific areas, such as; duplicate aid, forgery and the Sheriff's Department Street Narcotic Team. Investigators assist in multi-agency policing activities whenever allegations of welfare fraud are involved.

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The EFDP is staffed by Investigative Assistants whose function is to conduct home visits. When questions of eligibility arise, staff make a referral to EFDP to complete a home visit. Based upon EFDP’s findings, an assistance case may be denied, discontinued, have benefits reduced or eligibility verified. The EFDP staff may also make a referral for further investigation.

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The OCU is staffed by eligibility workers who review cases to determine if an individual has properly reported employment, income, assets, etc. Overpayments of benefits are established and financial recoupment efforts are initiated. If fraud is suspected the cases is referred for follow-up investigation.

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The IEVS unit is staffed by eligibility workers assigned to various bureau locations. Using computer matches from several sources they review cases for income eligibility. They obtain verifications of questionable eligibility factors, also write overpayments and notify the case carrying worker if a case needs to be discontinued or denied due to unreported income.

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In April 1997, the results of a forteen month study in Orange County involving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) fraud were released.

The purpose of the state sponsored study was to determine the amount of fraud in a random sample of cases in the AFDC population. The study showed that 45% of the cases investigated involved fraud and concluded that 9.3% of ALL AFDC and Food Stamp benefits issued represents fraudulent payments.

The fraud was not of a minor nature nor did it reflect small or incidental unreported income. The average will ful fraud overpayment was $2,575. While the largest was nearly $56,000.

Although this study was conducted in Orange County, welfare fraud is an IDENTIFIED problem statewide, including Sacramento County.

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If you know someone who is committing welfare fraud, the following information will be helpful to our investigators:

1. What is the full name of the person?
2. A current address?
3. How are they committing welfare fraud? Example: If they are working and not reporting it, please tell us where they are working, and what name they are working under. Also the social security number they are using of known.
4. May we contact you? If so, what is your name and phone number? (Your identity will be kept confidential)

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Report the person you suspect to the Department of Human Assistance Investigation Division by calling: (916) 875-8908

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