U.S. Department of Education’s Compliance with Improper Payment Reporting Requirements for Fiscal Year 2019

The Department complied with IPERA because it met all six compliance requirements. The Department’s improper payment estimate and methodology for the Restart program was generally accurate and complete. However, the Department published improper payments estimates that were unreliable for the Federal Pell Grant (Pell), William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan), and the Temporary Emergency Impact Aid for Displaced Students (Emergency Impact Aid) programs in its FY 2019 Agency Financial Report (AFR). Specifically, the improper payment estimation methodologies the Department developed and the estimates it produced were not accurate, complete, and statistically valid, as described in Finding 1 and Finding 2.