People Like This Make Other Poor People Look Bad

[klunderbunker]

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20...-welfare-fraud

1. Good.

1. If she can afford to buy lottery tickets, she can afford to buy some food can't she?

[Davi323]

For the longest time, there was a loophole in the Michigan state code that didn't prohibit individuals on welfare from continuing to collect even after winning the lottery. There was a case last year (which is what led to the change in the law in the first place) where they couldn't do a whole lot, because at the time he did it, it wasn't against state law. That got changed, thank goodness. However, they could have nailed this woman anyway. In addition to failing to report her lotto income, she also withheld the fact that she had held a job for a year or so during the time she was collecting her full Bridge Card amount. (The Bridge Card is Michigan's version of green stamps, it's like a bank card that can be used at grocery store checkouts). Even had she never won the lottery, she was still committing welfare fraud by failing to report the job she held.

Michigan, under Republican Governor Rick Snyder, has made a systemic effort to crack down on welfare fraud, and I applaud him for it. Michigan has a balanced budget requirement written into it's state Constitution, so the state government has been making efforts to cut waste wherever possible. Welfare fraud costs the state millions and millions per year, millions that could be going to other state funded programs that could use the money.

[Echelon]

She should have never had assumed that it was okay to keep using the food stamps; if anything she should have at least reported her winnings to their office, then made the decision on whether to keep using the card based on how many days it would have taken for it to expire.

[Rainbow Yaz]

I have no issue with people who need and get some form of welfare.

I do have issues with people who abuse the system. When I was 15-17 I worked at a grocery store bagging groceries, collecting carts, all that jazz. Without fail at the beginning of every month we would have people come in with the cards we use here in Indiana for food stamps or the little sheets for WIC and they would buy their stuff then once all that got bagged up they would put a couple cases of beer on the belt and pull out a wad of cash from their pocket to pay for it.

I'm not saying when you are on assistance you can have things like that but when you are pulling out wads of a couple hundred dollars from your pocket you probably don't need the help

[Davi323]

Originally Posted by Yazloz

I have no issue with people who need and get some form of welfare.

I do have issues with people who abuse the system. When I was 15-17 I worked at a grocery store bagging groceries, collecting carts, all that jazz. Without fail at the beginning of every month we would have people come in with the cards we use here in Indiana for food stamps or the little sheets for WIC and they would buy their stuff then once all that got bagged up they would put a couple cases of beer on the belt and pull out a wad of cash from their pocket to pay for it.

I'm not saying when you are on assistance you can have things like that but when you are pulling out wads of a couple hundred dollars from your pocket you probably don't need the help

Think that's bad? Try this one:

First, a little background, Michigan has a 10c pop bottle/can deposit. Keep that in mind.

How to commit Michigan Bridge Card abuse
Step 1. Use ENTIRE Bridge Card amount and buy the cheapest pop available, to maximize the total number of cans you could get.

Step 2. After purchasing, go to the parking lot and empty every single can down the drain, leaving you with just the cans.

Step 3. Walk right back into the store you just bought the pop from, go to the bottle returns, recycle them for ten cents a can. R

Step 4. Redeem those bottle return receipts for cash.

Step 5. Use cash to buy beer and alcohol with, because Michigan Bridge cards cannot be used to purchase any alcoholic beverages, lottery tickets or cigarettes.

This happens in every grocery store in the state that has bottle return facilities.

Now, you don't need to purchase alcohol, smokes or lotto tickets with the cash, you could just pocket it if you wanted. Sure, you take a huge loss on the transfer, but it's cash in your pocket, and you didn't really pay for the pop used to get it in the first place, Michigan taxpayers did.