Audit: Record-Keeping Errors Raise Questions About Welfare Eligibility
       A state audit released Thursday found “significant error rates” in records used to verify eligibility for Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children, a program that in fiscal 2004 provided $315 million in aid to 112,000 individuals living in 49,000 households.
       Auditors found cases where the Department of Transitional Assistance could not verify that recipients had met work requirements, could not verify immunization and school attendance records, and were missing or had incomplete benefit application documents. Auditors also found two ineligible non-citizens who had received benefits for up to six months. And department officials identified another 76 ineligible non-citizens who “possibly may have been” improperly receiving benefits.
       The audit, based on a review of 197 randomly sampled cases, determined that the errors left the state vulnerable to as much as $55 million in overpayments per year.