“You should NEVER be able to get “cash back” on food stamp purchases”
No such thing as cash back on SNAP purchases within the system.
“No such thing as cash back on SNAP purchases within the system.”
“Within the system” i.e. legally, you’re correct. But it’s done all the time anyway. The customers know where to go. And it is VERY lucrative for the crooked merchants who hand out the cash.
It works like this:
Customer “buys” $100 worth of groceries, swipes SNAP card, $100 is deducted from balance.
Merchant’s submits his copy of receipt to state; merchant is paid $100.
But customer only takes $50 worth of the food shown on SNAP receipt; gets the “change” in cash or in trade for alcohol or cigarettes, often at a lesser amount, say, $30 instead of $50.
Merchant later re-sells the $50 food that was re-stocked, and for which the SNAP card has already paid him the first time.
So on the original $100 SNAP purchase, the merchant makes an additional $50 or more off the books, on that one customer.
This process is repeated, compounding the merchant’s profits.
Addicts are particularly lucrative; they’ll take $50 or less in cash and no food at all for a $100 swipe.