The Community Services Department (CSD) was honored to receive the Best in Category in Financial Management Achievement Award at the 2022 National Association of Counties Annual Convention for prevention of improper client assistance payments!  Community Services Department Director -- James Green, Director of Finance and Support Services – Julie Dowe, along with County Administration and Palm Beach County Commissioners were on hand at the NACo conference in Denver, CO to accept the award.

The Community Services Department provides a comprehensive range of programs to assist low-income households with basic needs and to help remove barriers to self-sufficiency. One program is the Rental Assistance program, where Palm Beach County residents in need (meeting certain income thresholds) can receive assistance to pay their rent. Through the severe economic downturn, CSD has seen the need for this assistance rise sharply and has adapted to this increased need, along with the need to maintain social distancing, by moving to an online-application process through the Online System for Community Access to Resources and Social Services (OSCARSS). Unfortunately with the dramatic increase in applications, CSD has also seen a large increase in fraud attempts, as well as an increase in clients applying through multiple systems in an effort to receive assistance quickly. In order to prevent duplication of benefits, combat fraud and ensure that the limited available funding goes to the residents who truly need it, CSD has implemented a variety of robust quality assurance and fraud mitigation strategies and has prevented over $1M in improper payments!  Every dollar saved by preventing improper payments ensures funding is preserved for clients in need.