EBT Cards Welfare Fraud

In Boston Herald today - Bay State welfare recipients can play the slots, pick up a six-pack of beer or nab a flat-screen plasma TV under loosey-goosey Bay State restrictions that allow those on the dole to treat taxpayers’ wallets as their own personal ATM.

Recipients of the Department of Transitional Assistance programs get Electronic Benefits Transfer cards that work like regular debit cards, allowing them to withdraw cash from ATMs and use it for whatever they want - all with scant oversight by the state.

State officials were unable to say how many liquor stores and bars accept the EBT cards. Nor could they say for certain that welfare cash isn’t being used on Lottery tickets or even casinos.

The Herald review comes on the heels of a jaw-dropping expose by the Los Angeles Times that found California welfare recipients spent $1.8 million in taxpayer cash on casinos. Michigan legislators are also mulling a crackdown on welfare debit card use in casinos.

One Boston area bar owner told the Herald he was contacted this week by a company saying he could boost business by accepting EBT cards.

“I’m offended. The idea is welfare benefits are supposed to go to people who can’t work and are just barely getting by,” said the bar owner, who requested anonymity.“As a taxpayer I’m surprised the state wants to make it this easy to allow welfare recipients to misuse our money like this.”

State officials admitted there’s little oversight of the $392 million in cash assistance welfare benefits granted to 70,000 Bay State households - even though Gov. Deval Patrick created a task force to crack down on welfare fraud in 2008.

“This administration supports changing the rules to prohibit individuals and vendors from knowingly accepting EBT cash benefits for the purchase of alcohol or tobacco,” said Jennifer Kritz, a spokeswoman for the state welfare department.

Kritz admitted that because welfare recipients can simply withdraw cash, there’s nothing to prevent them from buying booze, butts or scratch tickets - or playing the slots at casinos.

“We encourage them to make healthy choices,” said Kritz, adding that families on transitional assistance need the flexibility of cash to purchase necessary nonfood items such as diapers, cookware and school supplies.

Businesses also can get in on the act. Owners can call their credit card processing company and ask to accept the EBT cards, Kritz said.

Affiliated Computer Services Inc.- a Texas-based company the state hired to manage the EBT card program in 2005 - keeps track of the transactions and vendors authorized to accept the cards, but Kritz couldn’t say whether the firm keeps an eye out for abuse.

Pete Sepp, spokesman for the National Taxpayers Union, said the lax oversight breeds public mistrust.

“These are tax dollars being gifted essentially to beneficiaries, and people need to be sure that they are spent properly,” Sepp said.“Some of these expenditures might not be just inadvisable - they might be downright fraudulent.”

State officials have handed out the EBT cards since 1997 and currently award them for three programs - Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children; Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled and Children; and an electronic version of food stamps. The food stamps program limits users’ purchases, but the other two provide cash.

Patrick’s fraud task force monitors irregular spending and takes public tips on welfare abuse, Kritz said. Any welfare recipient caught abusing the system can be cut off and can be forced to even pay back the state.

This is insane. It's simple the card should be progammed to only allow purchases in designated businesses. And bars, casinos etc should be not allowed to accept them. It's like when the system used to distribute food stamps. They can only be used to purchase food items.

I remember reading an article about this close to 2 years ago and still nothing has changed. Next time you're in the grocery store and you see one of these cards being used follow the person out to the parking lot and see what kind of car they drive. I've done it on 5 occasions and in 3 of them the person got into a Cadillac Escallade (once) and a Jeep Grane Cherokee (twice). Nice huh! The other two times the person got into a regular car.
The program is needed for people with children for lots of reasons. A hotline needs to be established to rat out the people committing fraud and that's one time I wouldn't mind being called a rat.

I'm with you Doc

The immigrants are abusing the system while the americans struggling. It makes me sick.

Parasites can take down the healthiest animal,
or economy.

Our economy's on life support,
is it the right time to shake the parasites yet?

It is not just immigrants. I know lots of people who sell their cards for half of what they are worth. You can get 200$ worth of food stamps for 100$. Not a bad deal, then they buy crack with the 100$. They go into local businesses and offer these cards to people.

Immigrants? Parasites? Wow. We are not talking about parasites, we are talking about American people.

In my opinion, its the people at the top who are sucking the life out of the rest of us, not the other way around.

-Euri

keep voting democrat yea democrats welfare for everyone just remember ends with RAT

The debit card has replaced the paper checks that welfare recipients got. They cashed those checks and used them on whatever they wanted including booze and gambling.The debit card option was created to prevent abuse. Recipients used to have to sit by their mailboxes to make sure their monthly checks weren't stolen. Now the money is guaranteed to go to the right person - the person who is entitled to it. Yes, we have the technology that enables us to find out how each penny is spent, but should we? Where does it end? Say no to cigarettes but okay to designer clothes? Say no to booze but look the other way at high priced gourmet food? It is a slippery slope leading down the road to George Orwell's 1984. The people we are talking about here are truly "the least of these" and deserve to have some dignity. Let them spend that tiny welfare check as they see fit.

sayNOto1984 wrote:

It is a slippery slope leading down the road to George Orwell's 1984. The people we are talking about here are truly "the least of these" and deserve to have some dignity. Let them spend that tiny welfare check as they see fit.

Maybe if they made 'public assistance' a reality show, people would actually pay attention to what's going on.

You start with SSI, everyone has some mystery injury, usually something mental (tougher to disprove).
Food stamps, section 8, or public housing, Mass Health, and state Cell phones follow.

Then there's a dozen other handout programs that get played for profit.
These 'sick people' know the game better than the Health & Human Services workers, and once a new 'trick' comes out, it spreads like wildfire, and everyone gets in on it.

They use odd jobs, petty theft & selling prescription drugs to supplement their 'income', and get drugs.

The amazing part is if they put this same effort for scamming and getting drugs towards a real job, they'd probably be pretty good at it.

Every crackhead I ever met could make up incredible, detailed stories on the spot.

No wonder they're so good at working the system that's trying to 'help' them.

I sit in my Section 8 apartment thinking about my life and how I might be able to make it better. I don't do drugs or drink alcohol. I don't even date because I don't want anything to mess up the very little I do have.
I don't have any family to help me out so holding a full time job has been impossible...mainly because I don't want strangers raising my daughter. I'd rather be poor and establish a healthy supportive single mother relationship w/ my child than to have her grow up being an emotionally detached adult seeking acceptance and "love" from any one willing. I hope that the state and federal help i do receive will enable me to give my child love and security....we live a very modest life style. I shop off Clearance racks and at thrift shops.
I personally get very angry when I think of drug addicts and criminals getting the same help as I do...w/out even trying to be a productive member of society.
I am an artist. I do side jobs but the money I make from that goes towards dance classes, instruments and tutoring for my child....
I work hard at raising my child...and I hope that she is able to be a successful adult when the time comes. So to all you tax payers....I say thank you!
Oh...and to perhaps balance the give and take I have donated many of my art pieces to auctions to raise money for several organizations. I can't sell enough to live off of it but people do bid on it at silent auctions which is sort of like paying it forward....I suppose.
Peace!

Euri wrote:

Immigrants? Parasites? Wow. We are not talking about parasites, we are talking about American people.
In my opinion, its the people at the top who are sucking the life out of the rest of us, not the other way around.
-Euri

I agree 100%.

Grateful wrote:

I sit in my Section 8 apartment thinking about my life and how I might be able to make it better. I don't do drugs or drink alcohol. I don't even date because I don't want anything to mess up the very little I do have.
I don't have any family to help me out so holding a full time job has been impossible...mainly because I don't want strangers raising my daughter. I'd rather be poor and establish a healthy supportive single mother relationship w/ my child than to have her grow up being an emotionally detached adult seeking acceptance and "love" from any one willing. I hope that the state and federal help i do receive will enable me to give my child love and security....we live a very modest life style. I shop off Clearance racks and at thrift shops.
I personally get very angry when I think of drug addicts and criminals getting the same help as I do...w/out even trying to be a productive member of society.
I am an artist. I do side jobs but the money I make from that goes towards dance classes, instruments and tutoring for my child....
I work hard at raising my child...and I hope that she is able to be a successful adult when the time comes. So to all you tax payers....I say thank you!
Oh...and to perhaps balance the give and take I have donated many of my art pieces to auctions to raise money for several organizations. I can't sell enough to live off of it but people do bid on it at silent auctions which is sort of like paying it forward....I suppose.
Peace!

Are you serious? You don't work because you don't want strangers raising your child? Don't you think the rest of us would like to do that also? Sitting in your rent-free apartment collecting welfare checks is beyond lazy. Get a job and raise your child like the rest of us have to!

Everett Citizen wrote:

<quoted text>
Are you serious? You don't work because you don't want strangers raising your child? Don't you think the rest of us would like to do that also? Sitting in your rent-free apartment collecting welfare checks is beyond lazy. Get a job and raise your child like the rest of us have to!

What a nasty thing to say. She's made her decision which appears to be 100% within the law- who in the world are you to tell her what to do?

Not to speak for your Grateful, but if I understand, her point was that not everyone on welfare is abusing drugs and buying cigarettes with that money, which is just one of the latest right-wing boogeymen-issues peddled by the Herald and other conservative talking heads.

"Now the money is guaranteed to go to the right person - the person who is entitled to it. Yes, we have the technology that enables us to find out how each penny is spent, but should we? Where does it end? Say no to cigarettes but okay to designer clothes? Say no to booze but look the other way at high priced gourmet food? It is a slippery slope leading down the road to George Orwell's 1984. The people we are talking about here are truly "the least of these" and deserve to have some dignity. Let them spend that tiny welfare check as they see fit. "

Are you serious? It does not guarantee it goes to the person who is entitled to it. I can go out right now and buy 10 EBT cards at a local bar for half the price of what they are worth. This means the children who's parents receive benefits for them are not eating this month! The drug dealers even take EBT cards as payment these days. Making it a plastic card did nothing to avoid abuse! I have had heroin addicts come to a store and buy things for their drug dealer right in front of me. Then they talked about how much he now owed him!

outsider wrote:

keep voting democrat yea democrats welfare for everyone just remember ends with RAT

Not sure what that has to do with it. Republicans ran the show a few years ago and my paycheck still pays for some bum who just doesn't feel like working's beer.

It's not just immigrants, it's everyone. I will say that immigrants come to MA because they live in a hut back home, but they come here and get section 8 housing, free food, beer, and smokes, and free healthcare. They live like the kings of their old country. Would you work? I truly hate the welfare system.

Why work when the taxpayers will pay for your housing, food and health insurance? I think we all should do this. I wouldn't mind sleeping all morning and watching soaps all afternoon.

Grateful,
What you are doing is a fine job of setting your daughter up for a life of poverty for herself. She is learning from you. While you are sitting around in your free housing, think about this: I don't know how old your daughter is but she won't be a child forever. By the time you feel ready to actually take care of yourself, nobody will want you and you won't know how anyway. You will have no experience, skills, etc. So many people lift themselves out of poverty with hard work. They help their children see that hard work pays off and leaves a person with a feeling of self esteem. You're not fooling anyone "Grateful" and you are doing your daughter no favors. I'm so glad you're GRATEFUL that I go out to work every friggin day so you can sit around and "ponder". Get a job and stop leaching off the rest of us.

Grateful wrote:

I sit in my Section 8 apartment thinking about my life and how I might be able to make it better. I don't do drugs or drink alcohol. I don't even date because I don't want anything to mess up the very little I do have.
I don't have any family to help me out so holding a full time job has been impossible...mainly because I don't want strangers raising my daughter. I'd rather be poor and establish a healthy supportive single mother relationship w/ my child than to have her grow up being an emotionally detached adult seeking acceptance and "love" from any one willing. I hope that the state and federal help i do receive will enable me to give my child love and security....we live a very modest life style. I shop off Clearance racks and at thrift shops.
I personally get very angry when I think of drug addicts and criminals getting the same help as I do...w/out even trying to be a productive member of society.
I am an artist. I do side jobs but the money I make from that goes towards dance classes, instruments and tutoring for my child....
I work hard at raising my child...and I hope that she is able to be a successful adult when the time comes. So to all you tax payers....I say thank you!
Oh...and to perhaps balance the give and take I have donated many of my art pieces to auctions to raise money for several organizations. I can't sell enough to live off of it but people do bid on it at silent auctions which is sort of like paying it forward....I suppose.
Peace!