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Show System Coming to Insure Only Needy Get Assistance Denver, Colo.-- A, cooperative federal -state government quality quali-ty control system has been initiated to insure that only those genuinely in need of public assistance assis-tance receive it, Dr. Ru-lon Ru-lon R. Garfield, Regional Region-al Director of the U.S. Department- of Health, Education and Welfare, announced today. The newly-adopted system, sy-stem, an adaptation of a technique used extensively exten-sively in industry to maintain control over the quality of goods or services, ser-vices, now is being em- ployed by federal and state governments to reduce re-duce errors to a minimum min-imum and to improve welfare program management, mana-gement, Garfield said. The action, he said, was prompted by taxpayers, tax-payers, state legislatures, legisla-tures, and Congress questioning whether or not a large number of ineligible families might be receiving assistance or overpayments through the aid to families with dependent children (AFDC), which is the nation's na-tion's major cash wel-fare wel-fare program. The pro- gram is funded with federal fed-eral and state monies and is operated through state and local governments. govern-ments. According to James Burress, Regional Commissioner Com-missioner of the Social and Rehabilitation Service, Ser-vice, the latest available date shows that 6.8 percent per-cent of those in the nation na-tion who receive aid to families with dependent children (AFDC) payments pay-ments are ineligible, and that 13.7 percentof those eligible nationwide are receiving payments in excess of that to which they are entitled. The quality control system, sy-stem, he said, enables state public assistance agencies to: Determine the number of ineligible recipients and the number num-ber of those who are either underpaid or overpaid; identify the types, ty-pes, sources, and causes of erroneous payments; and initiate action to eliminate el-iminate the causes of error. er-ror. Quality control does not, however, replace the initial eligibility investigations inves-tigations required when a person applies for AFDC, nor the required periodic redeterminations-of eligibility, Garfield Gar-field said. But it does serve as a monitoring tool to assure that these investigations are done accurately and that the amount of the payment pay-ment is correct. The system also provides pro-vides a check on eligibility eligi-bility and correctness of payment between redetermination rede-termination reviews which are required every six months for AFDC and every three months for the unemployed father-segment of AFDC recipients, Garfield added. add-ed. States are required to establish ineligibility and overpayment rates during a 6 -month base period - April - September Sep-tember 1973 -- and to meet three successive target dates for progressive progres-sive reduction after January Jan-uary 1, 1974. Should a state fail to meet its target for any of the three 6 - month periods, Garfield Gar-field said. An error rate of not more than 3 percent per-cent ineligible cases and 5 percent eligible overpaid over-paid cases is the interim inter-im goal for all states by June 30, 1975, Garfield Gar-field said. The quality control system sy-stem is operated by the states under uniform policies po-licies and procedures developed by the Social and Rehabilitation Service Ser-vice of the U.S. Department Depart-ment of Health, Educa- |