PUBLIC ASSISTANCE INVESTIGATION PROGRAM (PAIP)

      Douglas County has an aggressive Public Assistance Investigation Program (PAIP).  This is the politically correct way of saying "fraud investigation".  Currently, the most egregious form of assistance fraud is related to child care and daycare centers.  There has always been fraud activity since "welfare" was introduced many years ago, i.e., food stamp fraud, which meant attempting or getting food stamp assistance when not eligible for the benefits.  Since the W-2 program began, fewer and fewer households are receiving cash payments from AFDC.  Most benefits now are food stamps, medical assistance, and daycare.  Statewide, daycare fraud is the number one problem, with some daycare centers claiming more hours for a child(ren) than they actually were in attendance at the center.  In addition, working parents have worked with the daycare staff to overstate the hours children were at the particular center and the parent(s) and center staff split the extra funds received from the county.

The PAIP Investigator is matching up hours claimed by the daycare provider and the working parent, and matching them up with the actual hours worked, as provided by the parent's employer.

Douglas County has had an official investigation program since 1986 and has prevented hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and benefits from being paid to those ineligible for such benefits.  The program has also recovered hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally obtained through false claims.  Very little, if any, county levy has been used to pay for this program.

Dennis G. Arras (11/9/04)