Anyone upset about food stamps is scum

[Neue Regel]

104. Very little fraud? I think that statement is open for debate

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/536/2684373/USDA-saves-800-million-from-improper-payments

Some federal agencies are turning the tide on improper payments. The Agriculture Department's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, says it prevented $800 million from going out in error.

"For many, many years ... the improper payment rate for the country ran anywhere from 8 to 10 percent," said USDA Under Secretary Kevin Concannon. "Now it's below 4 percent."

The improper or fraud payment side, which Concannon defined as someone selling their benefits or using the food stamps for something other than food, only accounts for about 1 percent of SNAP recipients. "But we're not satisfied with that because we think it should be zero or as close to zero as we can possibly make it," he told Federal News Radio's Ruben Gomez.

USDA has about 100 people across the U.S. who are dedicated to retailer oversight. Supermarkets tend to be involved in a small fraction of the fraudulent transactions, with smaller stores being the most prevalent places where fraud is found. So, it's important for USDA to enroll the smaller stores in the program and to monitor them to ensure that they are not conducting fraudulent transactions.

Last year, nearly 900,000 persons participating in the program across the country were reviewed for possible improper actions or trafficking.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/news/economy/obama_food_stamps/?source=cnn_bin

In fiscal 2011, the federal government spent more than $75 billion on food stamps, which provided an average monthly benefit of $133.85 a month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That's up from $34.6 billion at the end of fiscal 2008, when recipients collected an average benefit of $102.19.


In a program with a $75 billion annual budget, a fraud rate of 5%-10% is $3.75 billion - $7.5 billion annually.