Jonathan Ambarian

HELENA (KPAX) — Montana leaders have received a federal grant that they say will give them more tools for detecting fraud in applications for public benefits.

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services is receiving $424,388 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They’ll use it to set up a system that uses technology to identify potentially fraudulent online applications.

“All states across the U.S are reporting an uptick of online fraud, and this is going to give Montana the opportunity to review Montana’s standing with that,” said Heather Smith, DPHHS’ Program Compliance Bureau chief.

The federal grant is focused on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – commonly known as “food stamps.” However, Montana has a single assistance application that covers SNAP, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF program, Medicaid eligibility and the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, so the new system will also affect those programs.

DPHHS says some examples of fraud in these programs could include applicants not reporting all members of their household, not reporting their income has increased or continuing to receive benefits after moving out of state.

Smith said the new system will flag indicators that a case may have a high probability of fraud. For example, that would include applications from people living outside Montana and a high number of applications that come from the same computer or use the same phone number.

“Digital transactions are becoming so prevalent in everyday life – you know, everyone seems to have a cell phone, text message, email,” she said. “We’re submitting all sorts of applications and information online, purchasing online, and the digital information is going to be very important for us.”

Smith said the new technology will only tell DPHHS they may need to look further at a case, and they’ll investigate further before taking action. She acknowledged there could be false positives, like someone applying from a relative’s computer or many people using a computer at the library because they don’t have another way to access the internet.

DPHHS will spend the next few months putting together and testing the system, with hopes of implementing it by summer of 2025.

“It will not affect the user at all; they won’t see any different steps,” said Smith. “It’ll just be our ability to capture and utilize that data as it comes in.”

Smith said there is fraud in these programs, though she said she couldn’t give an estimate of how prevalent it is.

“For us, any amount is a high amount,” she said.

She said applying for this grant was part of DPHHS’ commitment to be good stewards of taxpayers’ money.

The department said in a statement announcing the grant that they received 1,528 referrals for potential fraud during the 2024 fiscal year, with the vast majority being for SNAP eligibility.

They said 241 people were disqualified from SNAP for program violations. DPHHS reported 1,625 referrals and 280 SNAP disqualifications in the 2023 fiscal year, and 2,035 referrals and 320 disqualifications in 2022.