Alcohol may not be purchased using SNAP. A transaction of that sort would require a corrupt retailer scanning the wrong barcode or something like that. They wouldn’t get away with doing that for very long.
“Alcohol may not be purchased using SNAP. A transaction of that sort would require a corrupt retailer scanning the wrong barcode or something like that. They wouldn’t get away with doing that for very long.”
You can’t be serious. You are living in a fantasy world. People buy cigarettes and alcohol all the time with EBT cards. There are many ways to get around it. As a matter of fact a clerk was fired for not selling cigarettes to an EBT customer.
EBT cards are used at strip clubs and casinos too.
http://www.nbc-2.com/story/15478933/investigators-ebt-transactions
Hand an EBT card to a neighbor with cash. Ooh, that was hard.
Corrupt retailers is usually how it works. And every so often you hear of a bust.
The electronic cards were started in part to combat fraud, and I think they do. But scammers can still turn over their card and PIN # to someone else, for a price. The the person would report the card “lost” and get a replacement. So now the state is clamping down and either charging a fee for replacements or limiting how often you can get a replacement. With the old paper stamps people would just sell them, usually 50 cents on the dollar. They would issue an ID that cashiers were supposed to ask but few ever did. Cards also make the cashier’s job easier. I used to cashier in a co-op and since change over a dollar for food stamps had to be given in stamps, it meant setting up the till with $20 each time even if they didnt get used, and they usually didnt. WIC was different. It was a voucher for a certain amount. If her purchases came a little under the amount of the voucher, she just forfeited it, usually a few cents.
Long ago when food stamps were first invented, probably during the Johnson administration, users had to buy them. I don’t know how the proportions worked, but I think having them commit some of their own money was a good idea.
“A transaction of that sort would require a corrupt retailer scanning the wrong barcode or something like that. They wouldn’t get away with doing that for very long.”
Hell, EVERY inner-city denizen in the handout class knows of a convenience store (or fifty) that will happily take EBT’s for booze, cigs, and everything else.
They just “mistakenly” hit the wrong key, or as I have seen personally, “buy” stuff on the card, then immediately return it for cash, minus a “restocking fee”.
And TANF is just free handout money, that comes on the same card (in most places).
They can do it with the cash assistance side of the ebt.