2007 Minnesota Statutes

256.9865 RECOVERY OF OVERPAYMENTS AND ATM ERRORS.
    Subdivision 1. Obligation to recover. If an amount of MFIP assistance is paid to a recipient
in excess of the payment due, it shall be recoverable by the county agency. This recovery
authority also extends to preexisting claims or newly discovered claims established under the
AFDC program in effect on January 1, 1997. The agency shall give written notice to the recipient
of its intention to recover the overpayment. County agency efforts and financial contributions
shall be maintained at the level in place during fiscal year 1996.
    Subd. 2. Recoupment. When an overpayment occurs, the county agency shall recover the
overpayment from a current recipient by reducing the amount of aid payable to the assistance
unit of which the recipient is a member for one or more monthly assistance payments until the
overpayment is repaid. All county agencies in the state shall reduce the assistance payment
by three percent of the assistance unit's standard of need in nonfraud cases and ten percent
where fraud has occurred. For recipients receiving benefits via electronic benefits transfer, if the
overpayment is a result of an automated teller machine (ATM) dispensing funds in error to the
recipient, the agency may recover the ATM error by immediately withdrawing funds from the
recipient's electronic benefit transfer account, up to the amount of the error. In cases where there
is both an overpayment and underpayment, the county agency shall offset one against the other
in correcting the payment.
    Subd. 3. Voluntary repayments. Overpayments may also be voluntarily repaid, in part or
in full, by the individual, in addition to the aid reductions in subdivision 2, to include further
voluntary reductions in the grant level agreed to in writing by the individual, until the total
amount of the overpayment is repaid.
    Subd. 4. Closed case recoveries. The county agency shall make reasonable efforts to recover
overpayments to persons no longer on assistance according to standards adopted by rule by the
commissioner of human services. The county agency need not attempt to recover overpayments
of less than $35 paid to an individual no longer on assistance unless the individual has been
convicted of fraud under section 256.98.
History: 1997 c 85 art 5 s 21; 1Sp2001 c 9 art 10 s 66