Posted on 04/28/2014 9:37:30 AM PDT by george76
Maine is starting to issue welfare benefit cards with photos on them despite a request from the federal government to wait.
...
the U.S. Department of Agriculture asked Maine to delay its plan, saying that it risks a loss of federal funding or litigation if it violates regulations in the program.
But DHHS said it will move forward with its plan designed to combat fraud and abuse in the program.
(Excerpt) Read more at kjonline.com ...
Notice that it says so far the cards have been voluntary.
This will cost the state Maine some money. And it will take some cooperation on the part of retailers. Remember that a lot of EBT food fraud happens when crooked retailers conspire with recipients.( We had a big shocking case of this a couple of months ago here in Everett. Other types of crime were also part if it.) The state issues the card but the retailer has to ask for it, just like asking for an ID to buy liquor. Maybe Maine doesn’t use EBT cards yet. When WA used to use the paper food stamps, there was a requirement for users to show a picture ID at the grocery check-out, but they almost never did. When the people use a cash benefit card at an ATM, I’m not sure how that works. With technology what it is, this could probably be developed. But an ATM where people are using regular cards doesn’t ID people. There are cameras of course. If people are getting benefits because they are lying about assets, unreported incomes, dependents, the usual stuff people lie about to get benefits, the picture ID will just be another layer of fraud. One of the biggest frauds can be getting subsidized housing, then doing illegal things in it, for example. Many times I have related the case of some guys running a brothel out of subsidized housing in Bellevue WA.(To add insult to injury, some of the parties were illegal aliens, but not from Mexico or anywhere near Mexico) But picture ID is shown many times during the process of getting housing assistance, just like its shown during the hiring process nowadays.
One thing about it—I guess that a certain segment of the population in Maine will no longer be able to complain about ID for voting.
Yes, this is a popular type of fraud—lying about dependents and where they live and also your own living situation and other sources of help you might already be getting.
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