Food Stamp Fraud, Rare but Troubling [fraud rate = 1.3%]

New York Times ^ | December 18, 2013 | Kim Severson

[Guardian Sebastian]

If they do go with food boxes they need to label everything so none of it goes to a “family store” for reselling.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

I totally agree!
No way it’s less than that either.

[upchuck]

As a volunteer intake interviewer at a local food bank, most of the folks I talk to are food stamp recipients. Some of them are quite talkative about things they do to cheat the program.

Some of them buy the choicest steaks and fish and then sell this to their neighbors at 50 cents on the dollar.

Some of them work a deal with a neighborhood convenience store owner to use stamps to buy cigarettes and beer and then resell the booty.

Still others sell their card to the highest bidder.

I realize the small universe of stamp users I speak with is just a drop in the bucket. But, still...

[Charles Martel]

Officially, the amount of money lost to underground trafficking is estimated to be 1.3 percent annually.

Well, when the government lies, it lies *big*. It'd probably be wise to assume that the inverse number (98.7%) is closer to the truth.

[momincombatboots]

That’s a BS rate. A convenience store owner, I knew specialized in food stamp fraud. Tobacco and booze for food stamps.

[RetiredTexasVet]

I’m sure that they had their top investigative reporters on this taking a whole year of fourth grade lunch hours to complete.

[fella]

1.3% ?

That number has been cooked so hot, long and without grease that it’s welded to the Teflon pan.

[zeugma]

Anyone who thinks the fraud rate for any government program is only 1.3% has not been paying attention.

[EinNYC]

I am sure that 1.3% is a total baloney figure. I’m sure the fraud rate IS closer to 50% or MORE. The recipients use the EBT as a form of currency, loading up on expensive foods and then selling them for cents on the dollar, to spend on liquor, drugs, and high dollar sneakers. Time to end EBT. If they’re hungry, they can find some work for which they are qualified and earn their daily bread. I’m tired of driving through certain communities (you can guess which) and seeing able bodied looking people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s sitting on porches with a bottle of beer or such in their hand, having a fine old time, while others toil at jobs to support them in this ridiculous lifestyle.

[Quilla]

I had a manufacturing plant in an "inner city" community for 25 years. Many of the gentlemen that worked with me could walk or even bicycle to work. Every day when I went on a bank or post office run I would see those 20-50 year olds sitting on their porches exactly as you describe. Although I paid a fair wage, these porch sitters could do nothing all day and literally earn more an hour from government handouts than the gentlemen that worked in the plant. I was so thankful that my coworkers actually chose to work each day.

Incidentally, when I had to close the plant in 2011 - thanks to a certain Kenyan - everyone who was laid off had been there the entire 25 years! God love them.

[UCANSEE2]

Officially, the amount of money lost to underground trafficking is estimated to be 1.3 percent annually.

It's not a lie, it's just a matter of them not including a certain detail in the claim.

It is 1.3 percent OF THE GDP.