When to Make an Overpayment Referral
You must make an overpayment referral for the following situations by completing the AR Referral Folder page for overpayments:
- All overpayments for active and closed cases, regardless of the dollar amount or circumstances of the overpayment
- All overpayments due to suspected fraud, regardless of dollar amount or the status of the case. Suspected fraud includes:
- inconsistent or contradictory information concerning current eligibility that cannot be resolved through additional verifications or collateral contacts
- deliberate failure to report changes in income, assets, circumstances affecting eligibility or benefit amount, or
- receipt of information from views, other agency matches or outside parties that indicate a potential fraudulent overpayment
Note: The Fraud and Overpayments Referral Screening (FORS) Unit is responsible for screening all fraud and/or overpayment referrals.
If you suspect that a potential overpayment occurred, but do not have enough information to calculate the amount, a referral must still be submitted.
If you do not know the exact overpayment amounts (i.e. you are creating a fraud/overpayment referral because the client is employed but did not report it, and you do not have the wage stubs with which to calculate the amounts), the referral must still be submitted without the overpayment amount. The FORS unit will complete the rest of the fields: Reason, Type, Start, End, Received, Correct, and Overpmt.
Supporting documentation must be submitted with the referral to be reviewed by FORS staff. These documents should be attached to the AR Referral Notes tab. A detailed narrative must be written summarizing your findings.
When an external agency match is found, a referral can be made directly by clicking the Referral check box on the AU Details page. The fraud/overpayment referral will be automatically created and sent to the FORS Unit without further action required by case managers. See Completing AR Referral from External Agency Match page.
In both situations, a detailed narrative must be written explaining the need for the referral and further investigation by FORS staff.
Related Topics
Overpayments and Recovery Policy and Procedures
Last Update: March 16, 2026