Invisapeeps 2.0

Forty-two · Guru

Foodstamp Fraud-educate me

Kalikat · Guru

My limited experience with the EBT (food stamp card plus it sometimes has a cash balance as well) is that the person with the card has a PIN. If they do not have the PIN, then they are not able to use the card. So my guess is that the daughter told mom her number and the mom used it that way.

Reporting? I think I would have to completely sure that the benefits were going to someone who absolutely did not need them before turning them in. I rather someone get benefits that do not need them than report someone who did and they not have enough for them or their family.

Forty-two · Guru

Ahh Kali, then yes someone else using the card would be very easy if it just needs a PIN

dqm either · Don't Quote Me

When my daughter got food stamps I used her card all the time because she can't drive and she needed help with shopping. I'm assuming that a good percentage of people who shop with food stamp cards are doing so for a person who can't do it themselves which is the reason they need the food stamps in the first place.

No they don't ask for you ID. You put in a pin number just like your ATM card.

Zee Cat · Member

What the others said, you just need the PIN. I would never assume fraud unless I had all the details. I've often seen friends and family use the EBT card to go shopping on behalf of the card holder.

dqm either · Don't Quote Me

Fyi on food stamps

In CA we don't pay tax on food but we do have redemption taxes on bottles and cans. So if you purchase 2 liters of soada you pay extra for the bottle but you get that back when you recycle.

If you purchase with foodstamps they forgive the tax. Just found that out today.

Also another good tip on foodstamps. If your store has a REWARDS/LOYALTY program you can still use your card to earn the points and get whatever free stuff they give out.

Although I've found that shopping at those loyalty stores your money doesn't go as far as if you shop at the everyday low price stores.

Our local store is very pricey because we live in a tourist destination town and gas is crazy expensive. I feel sorry for poor people with no family support because unless you have a big car and are able to spend alot of money at once it's not worth the 3 hour round trip to the cheaper stores :(

This is the reason I always did my daughter's shopping for her. I would be willing to do the same for a friend.

Papa Bear · Senior Member

Forty-two wrote:
So yesterday I spent what seemed like all day in the airport and overheard a conversation which makes me ask would you report foodstamp fraud.
So I overheard a discussion about a mother who used to be on food stamps but then her oldest kid moved out of the house and got food stamps of her own. So the issue was the mom was using the daughter's food stamp card. So the actual discussion the women in the airport were having was would you turn the mom in for using her kid's food stamp card? I don't know jack about this card but I would assume when you use it in a store that they ask for ID so unless the mother and daughter have the same name how would the mom get away with using her kid's foodstamp card?
Regarding the issue of would I turn them in, of course you could never have all of the facts but I have to be honest even if I was 100% sure it was fraud I don't think I would turn them in because I am lazy, yet I am the first to complain about my taxes going to pay for things like fraud. I guess I have no one to blame but my self and that's what frauds depend on

This seems to be state by state. This should help. http://209.203.251.64/benefits/fraud.htm

Forty-two · Guru

dqm either wrote:
Fyi on food stamps

In CA we don't pay tax on food but we do have redemption taxes on bottles and cans. So if you purchase 2 liters of soada you pay extra for the bottle but you get that back when you recycle.

If you purchase with foodstamps they forgive the tax. Just found that out today.

Also another good tip on foodstamps. If your store has a REWARDS/LOYALTY program you can still use your card to earn the points and get whatever free stuff they give out.

Although I've found that shopping at those loyalty stores your money doesn't go as far as if you shop at the everyday low price stores.
Our local store is very pricey because we live in a tourist destination town and gas is crazy expensive. I feel sorry for poor people with no family support because unless you have a big car and are able to spend alot of money at once it's not worth the 3 hour round trip to the cheaper stores :(
This is the reason I always did my daughter's shopping for her. I would be willing to do the same for a friend.

I would have to drive the person to the store. I just don't think I could use their foodstamp card.

Forty-two · Guru

I don't think I could shop with someone's foodstamp card. I would have to drive them personally or pay with my own money.

Forty-two · Guru

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RichardInTN · I believe in I.D.I.C.

I see three posts by you Forty-two...

dqm either · Don't Quote Me

Forty-two wrote:
I don't think I could shop with someone's foodstamp card. I would have to drive them personally or pay with my own money.

Do you mean you 'couldn't' or you 'wouldn't'?

Because you could as long as you were authorized.

I would have loved to have spent the time with my daughter but in those days she was working and going to school. My schedule didn't always match hers. Because it takes so long to get to the stores and back I hate hate hate driving all that way just to go food shopping so I usually try to schedule in either some fun time for myself or other large purchases. Because we don't have to pay sales tax in OR I typically save up all the non food item shopping to do then as well plus their gas is cheaper. Going shopping used to be an all day thing.

Well it still is but now I go to the town where she currently lives and visit her half the day before I do my shopping and head home. Still, it's an all day thing and if I was going to help out an elderly or indigent friend by doing their shopping for them in the more affordable stores I wouldn't bring them along.

It would be rude of us to spend our one day a month pampering ourselves in front of a friend that we know can't afford life small luxuries.

Forty-two · Guru

RichardInTN wrote:
I see three posts by you Forty-two...

Yeah last night I could not see any of them, no matter how often I logged out and on again.

Forty-two · Guru

I guess I say couldn't like someone says they could not kill someone wink

dqm either · Don't Quote Me

Forty-two wrote:
I guess I say couldn't like someone says they could not kill someone

Oh this made me LOL!

Only because you say you would drive a person to use a foodstamp card but you wouldn't use it yourself.

So you'd drive a person to kill someone?

funny mental picture.

Forty-two · Guru

I would not drive someone to commit murder i.e. a crime but I would drive them to do things that I would not personally do myself.

Papa Bear · Senior Member

Forty-two wrote:
I would not drive someone to commit murder i.e. a crime but I would drive them to do things that I would not personally do myself.

I was reading dqm more figuratively, as in you might drive someone to drink or somesuch.

dqm either · Don't Quote Me

You don't do your own grocery shopping?

Forty-two · Guru

dqm either wrote:
You don't do your own grocery shopping?

Yes, I do my own grocery shopping if DH is not doing it but I would not use a food stamp card. So while someone may need one I would drive that person to the store so that they could use their food stamp card; I would not use it for them.

Papa Bear · Senior Member

I see what 42 is saying. By analogy, my parents' car has handicapped plates. They're entitled to park anywhere, that i'm aware of. On occasion, I drive that vehicle. However, I'm not handicapped and I walk just fine. I couldn't park in handicapped spots any more than I gather you could use someone's food stamp card.

Forty-two · Guru

Perfect analogy PBJ and add to it the whole stereotype thing, no, I am not using a foodstamp card.

Forty-two · Guru

Regarding the stereotype thing yes more whites are on welfare but a greater percentage of blacks are, so that is where the stereotype is coming from. So more (a greater percentage) of blacks are on welfare/foodstamps than the percentage of whites. I know some people don't care about being stereotyped or fulfilling them but I do.

-- Edited by Forty-two on Friday 25th of January 2013 08:19:04 PM

dqm either · Don't Quote Me

I find that funny. My older brother won't eat watermelon for that reason.

I laugh at him and eat his piece.

edited to add:

My daughter isn't Black, she didn't get foodstamps or any of her many other social entitlements for racial reasons. She got them because she qualified for them under various programs. If she was Black and she tried turning it down because of racial stereotypes I might have to smack some sense into her.

*not literally of course that's a figure of speech. She was a legal adult and could accept or decline whatever program she chose but I would not be going out of my way to work harder to help her finish her programs just so that she could avoid admitting that she actually needed the help any more than I would make a wheelchair bound person ride in my car and deny that they need their lift.

I'm not sure where, how or why race would even matter. If one of my other girls was blind I'd not feel any better or worse about them getting benefits for being blind.

I wonder if I'm neglecting some burden of being Black by not caring what other people think of the color of my skin. I just don't think about it that much for it to affect my shopping choices or my decisions to help people.

-Sorry, I can't do that because I'm Black. I'd be willing to help you if I was White but ....

hmm

I can't wrap my head around that.

-- Edited by dqm either on Friday 25th of January 2013 09:47:03 PM

dqm either · Don't Quote Me

I can see where you're going with that analogy but it doesn't really work.

For it to work the foodstamp card=handicapped placard.

If you won't use the foodstamp card but would pay with your own money instead then the analogy would be that you wouldn't drive a car with a handicapped placard and would make the person ride in your car instead. This even if their car is better equipped for their needs. This is saying that you wouldn't be seen driving a car with a placard because someone might think you were the one who needed it.

I'm not saying anyone has to do favors for anyone else if they don't want to I'm just poinint out the flaw in your analogy.

Meh, it doesn't bother me to drive my parents' car with the handicap placard because there's nothing wrong with needing a closer parking spot for someone who's disabled. I assume that anyone seeing me driving it doesn't think I'm the one who needs it and quite frankly who cares if they do think that and who cares if I did? hmm

Same as it never bothered me to use my daughter's foodstamp card. There is nothing wrong with using a foodstamp card and I assume that anyone seeing me using it didn't think I was the one who needed it and again who cares if they did think that and who cares if I did need it?

I can't see how where I park or what method I use to pay for groceries has any bearing on any anything. I've only done those things for relatives but I'm close enough to my friends that if any of them needed me to drive their wheelchair accessable vehicle or shop with their EBT card I'd do it gladly.

My friends would do the same for me if I ever needed help.

Also I'm not sure what you mean about stereotype but statistically a welfare recipient is most likely to be an unmarried White woman with one child.

That's not me or my kid. Oh wait. LOL! That is my kid now but she no longer qualifies for that program as of a couple years ago. At the time she was 18-20 years old, unmarried, no children, in college, working, and differently abled (not blind but denied a licence to drive per the State).

The dept of rehabilitation (sounds like a freaking prison but it's designed to help handicapped people become better functioning members of society) determined her needs and what benefits she qualified for from which agencies. Some of it was based on income, which is why she no longer gets the foodstamps but some of it is based on physical abilities so she will always qualify for those. I'd be beyond pissed if she didn't accept help however it was offered including me shopping for her if she had to study or work.

She sometimes gets this attitude where she thinks she has to do everything herself and she doesn't need help. That attitude ends up hurting more than helping.