Quality Control Definitions

Agency Caused Error

An agency caused error is defined as an error that occurred when the county had all the information within their possession, but failed to act on the information provided.

Client Caused Error

A client caused error is defined as an error that occurs when the client fails to provide or withholds pertinent information to make an accurate eligibility determination.

Cumulative Error Rate

The cumulative error rate begins with the first month of the federal fiscal year (FFY), which is the 1st of October and ends the last day of the FFY, which is September 30. An error rate is calculated for each individual month. The current month error rate is added to the previous months, which determines the over all cumulative error rate.

Current Month Only

The current month error rate is determined by samples for that particular month ONLY.

Case And Procedural Error Rate (CAPER)

CAPER formerly known as a negative case action, is defined as any adverse action in which benefits are affected in a negative manner. Such actions include, but are not limited to, cases with a discontinued, denied, terminated, canceled or suspended case status.

Case Disposition Letter (CDL)

Every State QC case that is reviewed will have a CDL created and sent to the EW. A CDL is a requirement by the USDA, FNS on ALL QC case reviews, regardless of the outcome of the case.

Food and Nutrition Services (FNS)

The United States Department of Agriculture, FNS is the federal agency that requires that SNAP have regular QC case reviews completed to measure the accuracy of state eligibility and benefit determinations.

FNS 310 Handbook

The USDA FNS uses the FNS 310 Handbook to provide procedures on conducting QC reviews of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cases. Each State agency (or Performance Measurement County in California) is responsible for conducting QC reviews as part of its Performance Reporting System. For QC reviews, a statistical sample of households is selected from households which are participating in SNAP (active cases) and households for which participation was denied, suspended, or terminated (negative cases).

Federal Tolerance Level

The Federal Tolerance Level is based on the overall national average. This is accomplished by computing an average of error rates for all the states combined. This rate is determined after the fact, that is after all the states have submitted their error rates. The tolerance level never increases; it only decreases when the national average is lower than a previous amount.

Performance Measurement County (PMC)

In California, QC reviews are performed by the 19 largest CalFresh caseload PMC counties instead of by the State Quality Control & Improvement (QC&I) team. Santa Clara is one of the 19 PMC counties and has its own QC review unit in the DEBS Administrative Support Bureau (ASB). The State QC&I team performs active case reviews on behalf of any non-PMC counties (remaining 39 counties). Active and CAPER error rates are calculated on a monthly basis for each PMC county, in addition to State and National (annual) error rates.

Random Sample

A random sample is the manner in which cases are selected for review. Cases selected in a random sample are done by query.

Review Month

QC review prior months based on the stated random sample.

State Average

The State Average is accomplished by computing an average of error rates for all counties within the state combined.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

SNAP is administered by the Federal government to provide nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move towards self-sufficiency. In California, SNAP is known as CalFresh Food and administered by the CDSS.