Hidden camera report uncovers Alabama food stamp fraud costing state millions

WSFA.com Montgomery Alabama news.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Local NBC affiliate WSFA sent a reporter undercover with a hidden camera and exposed just how easy it can be to commit food stamp fraud in Alabama.

“In Alabama more than 900,000 people receive food assistance,” according to WSFA’s report. “Most of them are in need of the help, but some are taking advantage of the system, stealing hard earned tax dollars and taking money out of your pocket.”

In spite of laws prohibiting food stamp recipients from using their benefits to purchase items like alcohol, tobacco or tattoos, or in places like strip clubs, some individuals are still able to game the system.

So how exactly are they doing it?

At one store WSFA’s hidden camera reporter visited, he attempted to by a cigar with an EBT card. The clerk clearly new the law, and explained that he must ring it up as a food item in order for the undercover reporter to purchase it.

“We are determined to find those people and stop the abuse of the program,” Department of Human Resources Commissioner Nancy Buckner told WSFA. “Food assistance benefits are only supposed to be used to buy edible food items. It’s not supposed to be used for cigarettes and alcohol — any non-food item, even laundry detergent.”

DHR issues more than $109 million in benefits every year, and recovered $4.5 million dollars in food stamp fraud in 2013 alone. “That’s only what they’ve collected, not all they’ve uncovered, and certainly not all that has been taken illegally,” WSFA points out.

Food stamp recipients who are caught gaming the system are typically kicked out of the program from a period of time ranging from as little as one year to as much as the rest of their life. A retailer caught engaging in food stamp fraud could lose its ability to take EBT payments from that point forward.

“There are several things we do to get the money back,” Buckner explained. “We work up an agreement, they pay it back monthly, we intercept their federal tax returns, or state tax returns to get the money back. Then, sometimes we prosecute. We have people spending time in prison.”

Alabama Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) sponsored a welfare reform package during the 2014 legislative session that directly addressed some of these issues. SB114 made it a crime to defraud many state and federal government-funded assistance programs like Medicaid, Social Security, food assistance and public housing. SB116 prohibited welfare recipients from spending public assistance benefits on alcohol and tobacco, and at strip clubs and gambling facilities.

“It is a serious exploitation of a well-intended program, and quite frankly a slap in the face to taxpayers, for these public dollars to be used in such a way that is 180 degrees opposite of the program’s intent,” Orr told Yellowhammer. “This kind of abuse shows a complete disregard for those who are genuinely in need.”