Bring out your dead

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Audit: Massachusetts paid welfare benefits to the dead

BOSTON - The state's welfare agency made millions of dollars in questionable payments to people who were dead or otherwise ineligible for benefits, and missed numerous opportunities to detect potential fraud, according to an audit made public Tuesday.
The acting head of the Department of Transitional Assistance said many of the issues raised in the report from state Auditor Suzanne Bump had already been addressed. In March, the agency unveiled a plan for ending abuse and assuring that benefits are legitimately going to those eligible to receive them.
The 2½-year audit found a total of 1,164 people who continued to receive welfare benefits for periods of six months to up to 27 months after they died, totaling nearly $2.4 million in payments.
In most cases, electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards belonging to people who died were being used by unauthorized individuals to make store purchases or withdraw cash from an ATM, according to the report.

http://www.thetranscript.com/news/ci_23340024/audit-massachusetts-paid-welfare-benefits-dead

 

[marvin martian]

They vote a lot, too. Always for Democrats somehow...

 

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"BOSTON — In a move to further limit fraud and waste, legislators are proposing to require photos on state electronic benefit cards for welfare and food-stamp recipients.

During a press conference at the Statehouse, Rep. Brian S. Dempsey, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the provision to mandate photos is included in the committee's version of the proposed $33.8 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The fiscal 2014 budget would require the state Department of Transitional Assistance to mandate photo identifications on the cards, which work in the same way as bank cards.

"Trafficking in EBT cards is a significant problem," Dempsey said.

The budget also includes $350,000 to create a state Bureau of Program Integrity, which would develop and oversee regulations to improve eligibility determination and to identify and correct fraud in programs administered by the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The bureau would be an independent office within the executive office.
http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/04/massachusetts_lawmakers_move_t.html"



so government will spend $350,000 to 'empower' the same folks who created the problem in the first place.

genius. pure genius