Those who receive SNAP benefits frequently rely on the program to purchase food, but some discover that their cash can be stolen without restitution.
Although food stamp fraud has existed for a long time, a government reimbursement program has been able to assist people impacted. Congress recently banned a program that reimburses those who have had their SNAP payments stolen. Food stamp fraud steals millions of dollars from the government, which has far-reaching consequences for individuals receiving SNAP assistance. “We are talking about single mothers. We’re talking about families that require these benefits. “These people rely on these benefits to survive,” said social worker Lakisa Dukes.
Thousands are now being targeted, and they must discover methods to survive without the money they rely on for food. “That is all I have to work with. So when I got to the shop the next day, everything was gone,” said 19-year-old Kaiden Bickmeyer, whose SNAP funds had been taken.
Bickmeyer’s card was refused when he bought groceries at the shop. “It kind of hurt my feelings badly because that’s all I had for that week,” Bickmeyer told me. He opened his account and saw this message: “A food assistance purchase for $220.95 was posted on January 7.” Kaiden made the buy at a store in Massachusetts while spending the entire day in Columbus. “This happened in September. Christopher Swartzbeck stated, “I was in my second month of recovery, and when you are in recovery, you need the SNAP.” Swartzbeck had his SNAP benefits taken last year. “I had planned to go acquire beef. All the wonderful stuff, then I checked my card at six a.m., and everything was gone,” Swartzbeck explained. “As soon as it hit the account, it was gone by somebody in New York.”ย
The same incident happened to Shadawna Collier. “I was ashamed for one reason: I had a lot of items at the cashier. Their money was taken just hours after the month’s SNAP cards were filled. “They’re being persecuted because they can’t, and they don’t have food. There are currently relatively minimal resources. “So it’s just really frustrating,” Dukes explained.
4 Investigators discovered that almost 27,000 people in Ohio reported having their SNAP benefits stolen last year, resulting in the loss of about $14 million in public money. Nearly 7,000 of the victims were in Franklin County, where more than $3 million was taken. “When I went to Job and Family Services, they had a particular number of people, like they pushed people to a certain line that this had happened to,” Collier told me. Four investigators reached out to Congresswoman Joyce Beatty’s office. She issued a statement, claiming that House Republicans “stripped a key provision from the December stopgap funding bill that would have helped victims recoup their stolen benefits.”
“Congress must permanently reinstate this provision in the farm bill and continue supporting efforts to improve security for EBT cards so we can end SNAP ‘skimming’ theft for good,” Beatty went on. We also contacted Congressman Mike Carey’s office. They mentioned that it is on their radar. Other methods for protecting SNAP benefits include locking and unlocking your card with each transaction. You can find additional information here.
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