Obama administration targeting food stamp fraud as program reaches record highs

[alp227]

With more Americans relying on the program, the Obama administration on Tuesday plans to announce new steps to crack down on SNAP fraud amid estimates suggesting as much as $753 million in federal food aid is spent fraudulently each year.

USDA plans to introduce what officials described as “severe penalties” for the illegal “trafficking” of SNAP benefits by retailers and beneficiaries. The officials, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the issue in advance of this afternoon’s formal announcement, did not detail the severity of the penalties.

About 230,000 retailers nationwide participate in the SNAP program, with about 80 percent of funds spent at larger grocery chains. But officials said several smaller retailers often fraudulently obtain PIN or card numbers from program beneficiaries and keep the funds without the person’s knowledge. In the last decade, USDA has disqualified more than 8,300 retailers for such fraud, officials said.

In other cases, beneficiaries who receive monthly deposits of food aid on to plastic cards similar to bank cards intentionally use SNAP benefits to purchase water or other beverages with bottle deposits, dump the liquid and then obtain cash for bottle deposits. Others attempt to sell SNAP benefits in exchange for cash on Craigslist and social media sites.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/obama-administration-targeting-food-stamp-fraud-as-program-reaches-record-highs/2011/12/05/gIQAfdM3XO_blog.html

[zbdent]

1. Targeting that couple who were getting food stamps

and going back to their $1million mansion ... ?

[DCKit]

2. That last paragraph is just too damn bizarre.

It's worst (stupidest) case money laundering - spending $1.20 for a drink just to pour it out to get back the $0.10 deposit on the bottle? Only a Republican could have imagined that scenario.

This "crackdown" is going to hurt a lot of innocent people, kids included, if they insist on going in as if it's a war.

[alp227]

4. I've seen people in my city picking bottles out of recycling bins for the deposit.

[DCKit]

7. But not buying and dumping their drinks to get those golden bottles.

Keep up.

[jwirr]

5. LOL that is the stupidest idea I have ever heard. So if I buy water or

another beverage and drink it and collect the dime refund I am going to be investigated? And if I go around picking beverage containers out of the garbage cans or beside the roads to get the dime - I am going to be investigated? As one who has been around for a long time I can tell you that there is much easier ways to cheat and they all involve making more than a dime. I have also seen a retailer who did exactly what the article is talking about - he took advantage of elderly/disabled persons by telling them they had to let him have all their food stamps for a few groceries they were buying at the time and with their pin he collected the entire months benefits all at one time.

Beware! The food stamp recipient is the new welfare queen of raygun's day. In a few years they will be hated enough so that they will all be considered crooks and it will be time to start cutting the program.

[Citizen Worker]

3. We're going to prosecute food stamp fraud but not bankster fraud? Where else but Amerikkka.

[Life Long Dem]

6. "dump the liquid and then obtain cash for bottle deposits."

Opposed to drinking the water and then cashing in the bottle deposits.

[Hawkowl]

8. Obama: Giving his Wall Street buddies a pass

Maybe Obama should just change the Dept. of Justice to the Dept. of Injustice. Record prosecution of whistle blowers, pot growers, and now food stamp recipients.

Get out of jail free if you are a torturer, a war criminal, a Wall Street donor, a bankster, or an oil company.

No fucking way.