$69 million in California welfare money drawn out of state

[n2doc]

y Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times
October 4, 2010

Reporting from Sacramento —
More than $69 million in California welfare money, meant to help the needy pay their rent and clothe their children, has been spent or withdrawn outside the state in recent years, including millions in Las Vegas, hundreds of thousands in Hawaii and thousands on cruise ships sailing from Miami.

State-issued aid cards have been used at hotels, shops, restaurants, ATMs and other places in 49 other states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services. Las Vegas drew $11.8 million of the cash benefits, far more than any other destination. The money was accessed from January 2007 through May 2010.


Welfare recipients must prove they can't afford life's necessities without government aid: A single parent with two children generally must earn less than $14,436 a year to qualify for the cash assistance and becomes ineligible once his or her income exceeds about $20,000, said Lizelda Lopez, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services.

"How they can go somewhere like Hawaii and be legit on aid … they can't," said Robert Hollenbeck, a fraud investigator for the Fresno County district attorney's office. "This is money for basic subsistence needs."

more

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-welfare-20101004,0,5787669.story

[warrior1]

1. It's a possibly that

there is fraud going on.

[hedgehog]

2. I love it when the important parts get buried deep in the story...

The out-of-state spending accounts for less than 1% of the $10.8 billion spent by welfare recipients during the period covered, and advocates note that there are legitimate reasons to spend aid money outside of California. From the data provided, it cannot be determined whether any of the expenditures resulted from fraud.

"I think when somebody hears it's in a fancy hotel in Hawaii or Vegas, it's too easy to assume the is visiting that place and it wasn't somebody who stole their card," said Jessica Bartholow, a legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty.



Careful reading suggests that the real story here is not Welfare fraud, but cut-backs for the agency that stops fraud.

[WhiteTara]

4. I love it when media twist the story so that the victim

is then victimized again. This time by having no cops on the beat.

[zbdent]

3. come now ... requiring the welfare recipients to spend the money on food, clothing, and other

necessities?

That's REGULATION!!!

[Lyric]

6. I think you got that backwards.

The left wing wants to regulate business. The right-wing wants to regulate poor people.

[Lyric]

5. I can think of legitimate reasons for it.

Maybe you're in Hawaii for a funeral. Maybe you're on a cruise ship because a better-off friend had an extra ticket they gave to you, but you're paying extra for snacks or a souvenir. Maybe you had a family reunion in Las Vegas. Maybe someone stole your card. Maybe one of your kids had a school trip, and you wanted them to have a little bit of spending money so they could feel like a normal kid for once. Hawaii does not automatically mean "tropical vacation". Las Vegas does not automatically equate to "casino".

Really, people DO visit these places for reasons OTHER than self-indulgence and expensive recreation.

:eyes: