Even low level criminals are smarter than government!
Fraud in the government’s food stamp program is so pervasive that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the agency that administers it, launched a special system to facilitate the replacement of the welfare benefit when recipients claim it stolen. In the two years since the Biden administration created the program, the government has doled out a hefty $61.5 million to replace pilfered food stamps—rebranded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by the Obama administration to eliminate stigma—in 127,290 cases. Keep in mind, this is in addition to the staggering $112.8 billion that Uncle Sam spends to provide 42.1 million with free groceries, according to the latest government figures.
The USDA’s SNAP Replacement of Stolen Benefits Dashboard reveals that 79% of claims were approved by the agency and that 339,269 fraudulent transactions were identified through approved stolen benefits claims. Recipients in every state in the nation have submitted claims and New York has by far the most food stamp fraud cases—50,678. Maryland is second with 33,509, followed by Illinois (16,369), Texas (11,633), Washington State (4,208), New Jersey (3,630), Arizona (3,541), North Carolina (3,434), Indiana (3,309) and New Mexico (3,027). Three states have reported over 2,000 cases and more than half a dozen have over 1,000. The federal government allows states to replace benefits stolen as far back as October 2022, according to the USDA dashboard.