The Alaska Department of Revenue is seeking to stop people from wrongfully claiming Permanent Fund dividends. The department has launched a new program that will audit applications this month.
Deputy Revenue Commissioner Jerry Burnett said the administration has been interested in using a national database provider to check whether dividend applicants actually live in other states.
The state will pay LexisNexis, a company that maintains a national database of public records, $650,000 to check the residency of dividend applicants this year and next. State officials chose LexisNexis in part because the company has the largest database of its kind.
“If in fact their databases are correct … and sometimes they are; sometimes they’re current, sometimes they’re not – if someone’s registered to vote in another state, it’s going to show up,” Burnett said.
The state will ask people who appear to live in other states for more information. Those who don’t reply won’t receive dividends this year.
“If there’s a mistake in those records, we want to hear from the people and get those records corrected,” Burnett said. “And this shouldn’t affect anyone who has appropriately and honestly applied for a Permanent Fund dividend.
Burnett said if the program is effective, it could be expanded to audit other government benefits.
“You’d run it against Medicaid-eligible people and people for other state-type benefits, too,” he said.
The state currently has an audit program for dividend applicants, but it doesn’t check as wide-ranging sources as it can through LexisNexis. Burnett said the state doesn’t have a reason to believe the number of people wrongly seeking dividends has increased in recent years.
Dividends will be distributed beginning on Oct. 6.
This story has been updated and expanded with comment from Jerry Burnett.
