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Friday, April 15, 2016

Maine On Track to Uncover Record Amount of Welfare Fraud

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced on Monday that it expects to surpass last year's record number of uncovered welfare fraud.

"We're seeing an awful lot of welfare fraud," Director of Fraud Operations Tom Roth told WCSH-TV. "We definitely have more calls coming in than we have people to handle. Having the support from the state and the public is paramount, I think, to our success."

WCSH reports, the Fraud Investigation and Recovery Unit brought a total of 105 cases to the Attorney General for prosecution last year, totaling more than $1.2 million in stolen state benefits.

So far this year, the unit has brought 29 cases for prosecution totaling $456,131.56 in theft of state benefits.

Roth said that cases where a person uses a dead relative's EBT card are becoming more common.

He said one of the big "red flags" that a card may be being used inappropriately is out-of-state purchases.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But Republicans are always telling me it's minorities committing welfare fraud! How can those white folks in Maine be doing it?

Anonymous said...

You can use these out-of-state?

Anonymous said...

Maine has minorities too!

Anonymous said...

I don't care if it is black or white committing the crime. I think if every state actually investigated the amount of fraud found would be mind boggling. Same with disability and medicare fraud. But our government doesn't have the time or resources to investigate all of that. And we know why. They are too busy doing the same things on their level from special interest groups and any other way they can get it. What happened to that 60 billion LOST by the State Department while under Hillary's charge. Still lost! I could go on. She is certainly not the only one. But what is the point. It won't be found and it is not going to stop.

bayman said...

A lot of welfare fraud going on around here too. Everyone on welfare should be investigated several times a year. If they do not like it, then they get nothing. A welfare employee should be able to show up at their house unannounced to check out their living situation.