Re: Welfare Recipients Take out Cash at Strip Clubs, Liquor Stores and X-rated Shops.
Oh look, the NY Post managed to come up with an excuse to put strippers on their front page! :shock::shock::shock::shock:
no, not shocked at all
REGION, Mass. (WGGB)- After several reports of people misusing their tax-payer funded EBT cards, the Department of Transitional Assistance is trying to do more to stop that. The card’s purpose is to help pay for living essentials. Today, a committee voted to ban the use of the cards from places that don’t provide that- like strip clubs, tattoo shops, and nail salons.
“They have a cash and food side so people try to buy cigarettes with their EBT cards, sure,” said store owner David Glantz of Buckeye Bros. Smokeshop.
The EBT card works just like a debit card which means it can be used almost anywhere. This makes is hard to stop people from abusing the card. But the program hopes this proposal is a step in the right direction.
But there’s another way around the system. Buckeye Bros. Smokeshops sells lottery tickets and tobacco products and only takes cash. The owner says he will see people use the ATM to take out money with their EBT cards then come back to his store to try to buy things they aren’t supposed to.
This seems to happen in many places.
The intention for the cash option was to be used for things like rent that can’t be paid for by a debit transaction. The department says misuse is difficult to track but hopes this proposal passes legislation soon.....snip~
EBT Cards Misuse Probes New Regulations - Western Massachusetts Breaking News and First Warning Weather with WGGB.com ABC 40
March 29th, 2012 <<<<< More here!
WASHINGTON - An investigation into food stamp fraud is getting attention on Capitol Hill.
On Thursday members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing to question officials who oversee the nation's food stamp program.
The flawed system is costing taxpayers millions.
The hearings started with what ABC15 Investigators and our partners at Scripps Howard News Service exposed in our investigation.
“What whistleblowers have done for us could have prevented many of those stores from being back in business," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA.
Food stamp scams cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Store clerks secretly ring up a case of beer as a box of cereal or charge $100 on the chard and give $50 in return.
Repeatedly gaming the system for cash means recipients are even buying big-ticket items.
That's why the government permanently bans about 1,000 retailers nationwide for fraud every year. But our investigation revealed nearly a third of disqualified sites were approved to trade in food stamps again.
“The next analysis on the level of waste has to be one that’s independent from the USDA,” Issa said."
Read more:
Food stamp fraud investigation leads to hearing on Capitol Hill
Even Better was the report.....ABC TV did on it as well as the matter going to the House back in March long before the Post even Put their Piece on their Front Page.