The U.S. Department of Education last fall switched its approach to estimating how much it improperly paid out in Pell Grants and student loans after officials learned their initial methodology would have shown large jumps in erroneous payments, the department’s watchdog unit said in a report issued Tuesday.
The revised methodology, which the department retroactively received permission from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to use, produced far lower estimates of improper payments than the department’s original methodology, according to the Office of Inspector General’s report.
The Education Department, like other federal agencies, is required to estimate each year the rate at which some of its programs improperly dole out federal dollars. Such erroneous payments include, for example, a student receiving a Pell Grant that is above or below the amount for which he qualifies. It would also include a college not properly returning federal loan money after a student withdraws from classes.
Historically, the department has estimated improper payments by taking a representative sample of Pell Grant and loan recipients and looking at discrepancies between their self-reported income data and their federal tax filings.
Last year, though, the department decided to take a new approach.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/20/education-department-inspector-general-slams-agency%E2%80%99s-estimates-erroneous-pell-grant