A Republican lawmaker who has criticized welfare system abuses called the Patrick administration?s plan to eliminate high balances in benefit accounts of low-income families ?virtually useless,? and called on the governor to implement new rules where any money over $1,500 reverts back to the?state.?
?Clearly fraud is happening when someone can accumulate a balance of $12,000 on an EBT card and essentially make it a savings account,? Rep. Shaunna O?Connell said during a press conference?Thursday?morning with a handful of GOP lawmakers outside the?House chamber.
One day after the Department of Transitional Assistance unveiled its plan to prevent welfare recipients from stockpiling thousands of dollars in their food stamp or cash assistance accounts, O?Connell said it is not enough and suggested people will be allowed to keep high balances for too long before an investigation is launched.
Gov. Deval Patrick responded by saying not every instance where an electronic benefit transfer card has a large balance indicates fraud, noting a recipient might have experienced an extended hospital stay.?
?That?s why we put the reforms in place we did,? Patrick told reporters?Wednesday. ?Now not in every case does that mean that there has been fraud, but it certainly raises questions. The people who are eligible for these benefits are in many cases the poorest of the poor, so having an accumulated balance raises issues, but some people have been in a hospital for periods of time and are not using their benefits. There are all kinds of explanations.??
Asked what issues were raised in his mind, Patrick said, ?All the ones you?d expect.?
On Thursday, Patrick returned to the Legislature an amendment to a section of the fiscal 2013 midyear spending bill that would require photo identification on all EBT cards. The governor supports the section associated with photo identification requirements, according to a press release from his office, but returned the bill with an amendment to require the Department of Transitional Assistance, along with the inspector general and state?auditor to review the effectiveness of photos on EBT cards and report back to the Legislature within three years.
O?Connell, a Republican from Taunton, has pushed for reforms in the use of electronic benefit transfer accounts, criticizing the system?s potential for abuse. Both federal Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Assistance benefits ? food stamps ? and?state?cash assistance are paid to recipients through electronic benefit transfer accounts.?
She wants any balances over $1,500 accumulated for more than two months to be automatically returned to?state?accounts.?
O?Connell and other Republican lawmakers said the Patrick administration would not have taken any action if they had not pushed the issue.?
Rep. Kevin Kuros, an Uxbridge Republican, said people in his district are tired of hearing about EBT abuses, and accused the Patrick administration of being lax about dealing with welfare abuse.?
?Many have referred to President Obama as the food stamp president. I think what we have seen over the past months is the emergence of Gov. Patrick as the EBT governor,? Kuros said. ?While the administration?s efforts to reform the system seem to be sincere, I think they amount to too little too late. It is a culture of lax oversight for years and it has occurred repeatedly on his watch.??
On the radio?Thursday, Patrick repeated his view that the balances do not necessarily indicate fraud, when asked about it from hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan during his monthly ?Ask the Governor?show.?
?What those high balances indicate is that there are questions that have to be asked, not necessarily that there is fraud,? Patrick said. ?So, asking those questions and the initiatives that we?ve put in place in order to ensure those questions get answered is a really, really, good thing. And it?s good for us all in the long run.?
Patrick said billions of dollars are spent every year on public assistance with a ?relatively small amount? of problems that come to light that raise questions.?
?And it blows back on the whole program,? and the people who run it, Patrick said.?
Of the more than 83,000 households receiving cash assistance in March, 37 had balances over $1,500 and six had balances over $2,500. More than 99 percent of cash assistance households had balances under $1,000.?
In order to qualify for DTA assistance, residents are limited to less than $2,500 in countable assets.?
O?Connell said she first became aware last year of the ability for welfare recipients to accumulate high balances when a retailer in Pittsfield gave her a client?s store receipt showing a $7,000 balance.?
She gave the information to DTA officials in January, and later filed a freedom of information request with the department to get detailed information about account balances. She paid $800 from her campaign account for the information and pressed for it for six months, which DTA provided to her this week after releasing its plan to address the issue.?
?What we have found, I think, is astonishing in these records, balances of $5,000, $6,000, $10,000 and up to $12,000 on these EBT food stamp cards. And also cash balances of up to $4,600 on these cards,? O?Connell said.
On the radio, Patrick was asked by Eagan why O?Connell had to use $800 in campaign money to obtain the information.
?First of all, I?m not going to treat her or anyone else differently from everybody else. The rules have been around long before me about folks having to pay for the copies they want, that?s the first point,? Patrick said. ?Nobody is charging her, by the way, the considerable staff time of producing all this information.??
Patrick acknowledged O?Connell?s efforts and reports by the Boston Herald surfacing the issue, saying ?I think it is going to lead to some good comprehensive legislation.?
O?Connell said she wants to know why DTA did not launch its own investigation in January when she gave the department information about the $7,000 card balance she was made aware of.?
?I know that if I were the commissioner of that department I would want to immediately scour every single balance to see what is the problem and why is this happening,? she said.?
DTA Commissioner Stacey Monahan said in a statement?Wednesday, ?The fact that some clients are accumulating high SNAP or cash balances is inconsistent with the Department?s goal of helping vulnerable individuals meet their most basic and immediate needs, and that?s why we are taking this action.??
Under the reforms released this week, cash assistance clients with electronic benefit transfer card balances exceeding $2,500 will have their accounts closed. Also, the department will expunge benefit balances on accounts that have not been utilized after 90 days, and clients with balances higher than $1,500 will be notified and instructed to contact the department if their circumstances have changed and they no longer require benefits.
Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, who joined O?Connell at the press conference, said?state money wasted on welfare abuses prevents the Legislature from giving communities more money in local aid.?
?I was elected to ensure that the towns I represent receive the money we need to keep our schools, police and fire departments open. And it?s been years since we received adequate local aid and Chapter 70 funding, and it is due in part to the fraud representative O?Connell has uncovered,? Diehl said.?
Joining O?Connell, Kuros and Diehl were Reps. Leonard Mirra, R-West Newbury, Dan Winslow, R-Norfolk, and an aide to Sen. Robert Hedlund.?
The?House?plans to consider its version of Senate-approved welfare reform by the end of September, according to?House?Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Dempsey.
Andy Metzger contributed reporting.
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