42 U.S.C. § 1320b–7 — Income and eligibility verification system
submitted 91 years ago by Pub. L. 98-369 to r/title-42-THE-PUBLIC-HEALTH-AND-WELFARE · 2,041 words · no verdicts yet
States administering specified assistance programs must operate an income-and-eligibility verification system. The system uses account, wage, income, and immigration information with safeguards, notice, independent verification, and hearing protections.
(a) Requirements of State* eligibility systems. A State must have a system meeting subsection (d) under which—
(1) each applicant or recipient gives the State the person’s Social Security account number or numbers, and the State uses them to link the person’s records;
(2) the State requests and uses available unemployment-wage, reported-wage, Social Security, and IRS wage and income information when useful for checking eligibility and benefit amounts. The responsible Secretary* decides usefulness: HHS generally, Labor for unemployment compensation, and Agriculture for SNAP;
(3) employers, including State and local governments and labor organizations, report wages quarterly to a State agency beginning September 30, 1988. Labor may waive this if an equally effective and timely alternative exists. No report is required for an intelligence or counterintelligence employee when the agency head finds reporting could endanger the employee or compromise an investigation or mission. A State may let calendar-year domestic-service employers report annually;
(4) program agencies use standardized formats and procedures established by HHS with Agriculture consultation to—
(A) exchange useful eligibility and benefit information;
(B) make information available for child support and for HHS checks under subchapters II and XVI, subject to Treasury safeguards for tax information; and
(C) target use at finding ineligibility and incorrect payments, without requiring verification of every recipient;
(5) safeguards ensure information is shared only as needed for valid administration*, tax information only with authorized agencies, and all information is protected against unauthorized disclosure under the responsible Secretary’s regulations;
(6) applicants and recipients are told at application and periodically that system information will be requested and used; and
(7) accounting systems reimburse data-providing programs for their costs.
(b) Applicable programs. The required programs are—
(1) each State program funded under part A of subchapter IV;
(2) Medicaid under subchapter XIX;
(3) unemployment compensation under section 3304 of the Internal Revenue Code;
(4) SNAP under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008; and
(5) each State program under a plan approved under subchapter I, X, XIV, or XVI.
(c) Protection from improper use
(1) A Federal, State, or local agency receiving Treasury information may not terminate, deny, suspend, or reduce benefits until it independently verifies—
(A) the amount of the asset or income;
(B) whether the person* actually had or has access to it for personal use; and
(C) when the person actually had it.
(2) The agency must tell the person its verified findings and give an opportunity to contest them as with other eligibility information.
(d) Citizenship or immigration status requirements; documentation; verification; denial; hearing
(1)(A) The State must require a written declaration, under penalty of perjury, stating whether the person is a United States* citizen or national and, if not, whether the person has “satisfactory immigration status.” The declaration is made by the person; by an adult family or household member when eligibility is determined for a family or household; or, for a person born into a benefit-receiving family or household, by an adult member no later than the next eligibility redetermination.
(B) For SNAP, “State” means the State agency, eligibility means household participation, and “satisfactory immigration status” means a status that does not make the person ineligible for the applicable program.
(2) A noncitizen or nonnational must present either Immigration and Naturalization Service registration proof containing the alien admission or file number, or other documents the State reasonably accepts as showing satisfactory status.
(3) With the first kind of document, the State must use the number and the person’s name or other efficient means to verify status with the Service while protecting privacy as much as possible.
(4) If the declaration is submitted but required documents are missing, or the first documents are not verified—
(A) the State must give a reasonable chance to submit evidence and may not delay, deny, reduce, or end benefits because of immigration status before giving that chance; and
(B) if reasonable evidence is submitted, the State must send copies or information to the Service for official verification, may not take that action against benefits while verification is pending, and is not liable for the Service’s action, delay, or failure.
(5) After following paragraph (4), if the State decides the person lacks satisfactory status, it must deny or end eligibility and make the applicable fair-hearing process available.
(e) Erroneous determinations. A Federal agency may not take compliance, disallowance, penalty, or other regulatory action against a State for mistakenly granting eligibility based on citizenship or immigration status when the mistake resulted from verified status, the required opportunity to submit documents, waiting for Service verification, or a fair-hearing process.
(f) Emergency medical assistance. Subsection (a)(1) and subsection (d) do not apply to aliens seeking medical assistance for an emergency condition under section 1396b(v)(2).
In order to meet the requirements of this section, a State must have in effect an income and eligibility verification system which meets the requirements of subsection (d) and under which—
the State shall require, as a condition of eligibility for benefits under any program listed in subsection (b), that each applicant for or recipient of benefits under that program furnish to the State his social security account number (or numbers, if he has more than one such number), and the State shall utilize such account numbers in the administration* of that program so as to enable the association of the records pertaining to the applicant or recipient with his account number;
wage information from agencies administering State unemployment compensation laws available pursuant to section 3304(a)(16) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, wage information reported pursuant to paragraph (3) of this subsection, and wage, income, and other information from the Social Security Administration and the Internal Revenue Service available pursuant to section 6103(l)(7) of such Code, shall be requested and utilized to the extent that such information may be useful in verifying eligibility for, and the amount of, benefits available under any program listed in subsection (b), as determined by the Secretary* of Health and Human Services (or, in the case of the unemployment compensation program, by the Secretary of Labor, or, in the case of the supplemental nutrition assistance program, by the Secretary of Agriculture);
employers (as defined in section 653a(a)(2)(B) of this title) (including State and local governmental entities and labor organizations) in such State are required, effective September 30, 1988, to make quarterly wage reports to a State agency (which may be the agency administering the State’s unemployment compensation law) except that the Secretary of Labor (in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture) may waive the provisions of this paragraph if he determines that the State has in effect an alternative system which is as effective and timely for purposes of providing employment related income and eligibility data for the purposes described in paragraph (2), and except that no report shall be filed with respect to an employee of a State or local agency performing intelligence or counterintelligence functions, if the head of such agency has determined that filing such a report could endanger the safety of the employee or compromise an ongoing investigation or intelligence mission, and except that in the case of wage reports with respect to domestic service employment, a State may permit employers (as so defined) that make returns with respect to such employment on a calendar year basis pursuant to section 3510 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to make such reports on an annual basis;
the State agencies administering the programs listed in subsection (b) adhere to standardized formats and procedures established by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture) under which—
the agencies will exchange with each other information in their possession which may be of use in establishing or verifying eligibility or benefit amounts under any other such program;
such information shall be made available to assist in the child support program under part D of subchapter IV of this chapter, and to assist the Secretary of Health and Human Services in establishing or verifying eligibility or benefit amounts under subchapters II and XVI of this chapter, but subject to the safeguards and restrictions established by the Secretary of the Treasury with respect to information released pursuant to section 6103(l) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and
the use of such information shall be targeted to those uses which are most likely to be productive in identifying and preventing ineligibility and incorrect payments, and no State shall be required to use such information to verify the eligibility of all recipients;
adequate safeguards are in effect so as to assure that—
the information exchanged by the State agencies is made available only to the extent necessary to assist in the valid administrative needs of the program receiving such information, and the information released pursuant to section 6103(l) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is only exchanged with agencies authorized to receive such information under such section 6103(l); and
the information is adequately protected against unauthorized disclosure for other purposes, as provided in regulations established by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, or, in the case of the unemployment compensation program, the Secretary of Labor, or, in the case of the supplemental nutrition assistance program, the Secretary of Agriculture, or 1 in the case of information released pursuant to section 6103(l) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the Secretary of the Treasury;
all applicants for and recipients of benefits under any such program shall be notified at the time of application, and periodically thereafter, that information available through the system will be requested and utilized; and
accounting systems are utilized which assure that programs providing data receive appropriate reimbursement from the programs utilizing the data for the costs incurred in providing the data.
The programs which must participate in the income and eligibility verification system are—
any State program funded under part A of subchapter IV of this chapter;
the medicaid program under subchapter XIX of this chapter;
the unemployment compensation program under section 3304 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986;
the supplemental nutrition assistance program established under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2011 et seq.); and
any State program under a plan approved under subchapter I, X, XIV, or XVI of this chapter.
In order to protect applicants for and recipients of benefits under the programs identified in subsection (b), or under the supplemental security income program under subchapter XVI, from the improper use of information obtained from the Secretary of the Treasury under section 6103(l)(7)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, no Federal, State, or local agency receiving such information may terminate, deny, suspend, or reduce any benefits of an individual until such agency has taken appropriate steps to independently verify information relating to—
the amount of the asset or income involved,
whether such individual actually has (or had) access to such asset or income for his own use, and
the period or periods when the individual actually had such asset or income.
Such individual shall be informed by the agency of the findings made by the agency on the basis of such verified information, and shall be given an opportunity to contest such findings, in the same manner as applies to other information and findings relating to eligibility factors under the program.
The requirements of this subsection, with respect to an income and eligibility verification system of a State, are as follows:
The State shall require, as a condition of an individual’s eligibility for benefits under a program listed in subsection (b), a declaration in writing, under penalty of perjury—
by the individual,
in the case in which eligibility for program benefits is determined on a family or household basis, by any adult member of such individual’s family or household (as applicable), or
in the case of an individual born into a family or household receiving benefits under such program, by any adult member of such family or household no later than the next redetermination of eligibility of such family or household following the birth of such individual,
stating whether the individual is a citizen or national of the United States*, and, if that individual is not a citizen or national of the United States, that the individual is in a satisfactory immigration status.
In this subsection, in the case of the program described in subsection (b)(4)—
any reference to the State shall be considered a reference to the State agency, and
any reference to an individual’s eligibility for benefits under the program shall be considered a reference to the individual’s eligibility to participate in the program as a member of a household, and
the term “satisfactory immigration status” means an immigration status which does not make the individual ineligible for benefits under the applicable program.
If such an individual is not a citizen or national of the United States, there must be presented either—
alien registration documentation or other proof of immigration registration from the Immigration and Naturalization Service that contains the individual’s alien admission number or alien file number (or numbers if the individual has more than one number), or
such other documents as the State determines constitutes reasonable evidence indicating a satisfactory immigration status.
If the documentation described in paragraph (2)(A) is presented, the State shall utilize the individual’s alien file or alien admission number to verify with the Immigration and Naturalization Service the individual’s immigration status through an automated or other system (designated by the Service for use with States) that—
utilizes the individual’s name, file number, admission number, or other means permitting efficient verification, and
protects the individual’s privacy to the maximum degree possible.
In the case of such an individual who is not a citizen or national of the United States, if, at the time of application for benefits, the statement described in paragraph (1) is submitted but the documentation required under paragraph (2) is not presented or if the documentation required under paragraph (2)(A) is presented but such documentation is not verified under paragraph (3)—
the State—
shall provide a reasonable opportunity to submit to the State evidence indicating a satisfactory immigration status, and
may not delay, deny, reduce, or terminate the individual’s eligibility for benefits under the program on the basis of the individual’s immigration status until such a reasonable opportunity has been provided; and
if there are submitted documents which the State determines constitutes reasonable evidence indicating such status—
the State shall transmit to the Immigration and Naturalization Service either photostatic or other similar copies of such documents, or information from such documents, as specified by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for official verification,
pending such verification, the State may not delay, deny, reduce, or terminate the individual’s eligibility for benefits under the program on the basis of the individual’s immigration status, and
the State shall not be liable for the consequences of any action, delay, or failure of the Service to conduct such verification.
If the State determines, after complying with the requirements of paragraph (4), that such an individual is not in a satisfactory immigration status under the applicable program—
the State shall deny or terminate the individual’s eligibility for benefits under the program, and
the applicable fair hearing process shall be made available with respect to the individual.
Each Federal agency responsible for administration of a program described in subsection (b) shall not take any compliance, disallowance, penalty, or other regulatory action against a State with respect to any error in the State’s determination to make an individual eligible for benefits based on citizenship or immigration status—
if the State has provided such eligibility based on a verification of satisfactory immigration status by the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
because the State, under subsection (d)(4)(A)(ii), was required to provide a reasonable opportunity to submit documentation,
because the State, under subsection (d)(4)(B)(ii), was required to wait for the response of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the State’s request for official verification of the immigration status of the individual, or
because of a fair hearing process described in subsection (d)(5)(B).
Subsections (a)(1) and (d) shall not apply with respect to aliens seeking medical assistance for the treatment of an emergency medical condition under section 1396b(v)(2) of this title.
Source credit: (Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title XI, § 1137, as added Pub. L. 98–369, div. B, title VI, § 2651(a), July 18, 1984, 98 Stat. 1147; amended Pub. L. 99–509, title IX, § 9101, Oct. 21, 1986, 100 Stat. 1972; Pub. L. 99–514, § 2, Oct. 22, 1986, 100 Stat. 2095; Pub. L. 99–603, title I, § 121(a)(1), Nov. 6, 1986, 100 Stat. 3384; Pub. L. 100–360, title IV, § 411(k)(15)(A), July 1, 1988, 102 Stat. 799; Pub. L. 103–432, title II, § 231, Oct. 31, 1994, 108 Stat. 4462; Pub. L. 104–193, title I, § 108(g)(8), title III, § 313(c), Aug. 22, 1996, 110 Stat. 2168, 2212; Pub. L. 104–208, div. C, title V, § 507(a), Sept. 30, 1996, 110 Stat. 3009–673; Pub. L. 106–169, title IV, § 401(p), Dec. 14, 1999, 113 Stat. 1859; Pub. L. 106–170, title IV, § 405(a), (b), Dec. 17, 1999, 113 Stat. 1911; Pub. L. 110–234, title IV, § 4002(b)(1)(A), (B), (2)(V), May 22, 2008, 122 Stat. 1095–1097; Pub. L. 110–246, § 4(a), title IV, § 4002(b)(1)(A), (B), (2)(V), June 18, 2008, 122 Stat. 1664, 1857, 1858; Pub. L. 113–79, title IV, § 4030(q), Feb. 7, 2014, 128 Stat. 815.)
- 1935Enacted · Pub. L. 98-369 · 98 Stat. 1147
- 1986Amended · Pub. L. 99-509 · 100 Stat. 1972
- 1986Amended · Pub. L. 99-514 · 100 Stat. 2095
- 1986Amended · Pub. L. 99-603 · 100 Stat. 3384
- 1988Amended · Pub. L. 100-360 · 102 Stat. 799
- 1994Amended · Pub. L. 103-432 · 108 Stat. 4462
- 1996Amended · Pub. L. 104-193 · 110 Stat. 2168, 2212
- 1996Amended · Pub. L. 104-208 · 110 Stat. 3009
- 1999Amended · Pub. L. 106-169 · 113 Stat. 1859
- 1999Amended · Pub. L. 106-170 · 113 Stat. 1911
- 2008Amended · Pub. L. 110-234 · 122 Stat. 1095
- 2008Amended · Pub. L. 110-246 · 122 Stat. 1664, 1857, 1858
- 2014Amended · Pub. L. 113-79 · 128 Stat. 815
A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by Pub. L. 98-369 on 1935-08-14.
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