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Enterprise Income Verification (EIV) System for Multifamily Housing Program Users

Background

Under the Rental Housing Integrity Improvement Project (RHIIP) initiative, the Office of Housing is responsible for ensuring that the proper subsidy is provided to low income families through its rental assistance programs. The amount of rental assistance paid on behalf of the family is calculated using the family's annual income, less allowable deductions. Therefore, as of January 31, 2010 it is required that Owners and Management Agents (O/As) obtain EIV access and adequately verify annual income and benefit information in making rental housing subsidy determinations. The O/As must use the EIV system in its entirety.

EIV

EIV obtains monthly Social Security (SS) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) and monthly employer new hires (W-4), quarterly wage for federal and non-federal employees, and quarterly unemployment data from the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS') National Directory of New Hires (NDNH).

EIV compiles these data and makes them available to:

 

  1. O/As to assist them in verifying tenant-provided income information at the time of re-certification for HUD's rental assistance programs. O/As are not to take the income data in EIV and use it to calculate a tenant's income.
  2. Contract administrators (CAs) (Performance Based Contract Administrators (PBCAs), Traditional Contract Administrators (TCAs) in preparation for and during management and occupancy reviews (MORs) of O/A program operations.
  3. Independent Public Auditors (IPAs) in auditing O/As and PHAs in the administration of HUD rental assistance programs.
  4. HUD's Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG) in carrying out its objective to detect and pursue cases of waste, fraud, and abuse of HUD's programs.

The use of EIV, an independent third party income verification source, will better ensure that the right benefits go to the right persons. Since the use of EIV became mandatory for O/A, O/As are required to maintain access to the system and incorporate all of its functionality fully in their day-to-day operations. CAs are also required to use the system in the performance of MORs, the purpose of which is to identify and reduce errors in the administration of HUD rental assistance programs, thereby reducing the number and amount of improper payments of HUD subsidies. The EIV System has already proven to be instrumental in reducing income and rent determination errors and improper payments due to unreported and underreported family household income. With the mandate for O/As to use EIV as a third party income verification tool and increased monitoring of O/A verification of tenant income, HUD will further reduce improper payment of HUD subsidy.

System Security Measures

The integrity and availability of data in EIV is essential. The data contained therein needs to be protected from unanticipated or unintentional use and disclosure. Through its system security measures, HUD restricts the use of this information to program administrators such as O/As, HUD approved officials such as CAs under contract with HUD, and HUD's OIG, the law enforcement arm of HUD. Further information is available from EIV application information and online access.

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