Food stamp fraud is rampant!
I am a triage interviewer for a local food/clothing/etc bank. Virtually everybody I interview is on food stamps. A majority of the ones not on food stamps have been denied because of a criminal record.
About 80% of the people I interview are also on “disability” or SSI which is the new unemployment. As their 99 (or what ever) weeks of unemployment is about to expire, they suddenly develop back problems, etc. Of course it can take up to two years to get on disability and you need a good lawyer.
Here in SC you can’t buy cigs or booze with food stamps but there are plenty of ways to turn food stamps into money. The scam I’m told about most (yes, these folks are not shy about scamming the system, I guess because it’s so simple) involves going to the grocery store and stocking up on the most expensive cuts of meat, paying for the meat with food stamps and then hawking the meat in the local neighborhood for $.50 on the dollar.
There are plenty of stores that are willing to look the other way, too. To me, food stamps should be earmarked: perhaps with 1 gal of milk, four loaves of bread, 1 pound of beef, etc. While there would still be cheating, it would be less than now and it would make it more difficult to cheat.