Food Stamps Helping More People — and More Efficiently
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/food-stamps-helping-more-people-%e2%80%94-and-more-efficiently/
Posted by: Dottie Rosenbaum
Posted in: Economic Recovery Watch, Food Assistance, Poverty and Income, Recession and Recovery
It’s no secret that with unemployment much higher than usual during the recession, a growing number of Americans are receiving food stamps to help them afford an adequate diet. In fact, the number of food stamp recipients has jumped by about 13 million (50 percent) since the start of the recession. But you might not know that the Food Stamp Program has handled this increase while becoming even more efficient, as a new Center report shows.
The Agriculture Department announced last month that, in 2009, the share of total food stamp payments that represent overpayments, underpayments, or payments to ineligible households reached an all-time low, 4.36 percent. The net loss to the federal government from payment errors — that is, the benefits lost through overpayments minus those saved by underpayments — was only 2.7 percent.
By comparison, the IRS estimates a noncompliance rate with federal taxes of at least 15 percent in 2001, which represents the loss of about $300 billion in federal revenues.
As the chart shows, food stamp overpayments and underpayments have dropped significantly in the last two decades. The Food Stamp Program has one of the most rigorous quality control systems of any public benefit program — states with persistently high error rates receive financial penalties, for example — so taxpayers can have high confidence that it’s using public resources wisely.
More About Dottie Rosenbaum
Rosenbaum is a Senior Policy Analyst focusing primarily on federal and state issues in the Food Stamp Program as well as issues that involve the coordination of food stamps and other state-administered health and income security programs, such as Medicaid, TANF, and child care.
In addition, Rosenbaum has expertise on the federal budget and budget process.
Full bio | Blog Archive | Research archive at CBPP.org
For the last few years I have worked in an industry where I come into contact with food stamp recipients on a daily basis. For two years I worked overnight at a convenience store/gas station and for the last year I’ve worked at a grocery store. I think that food stamps are a great service to people who need them, but I am not sure that as many people need them as there are receiving them, and I think some people need them that don’t receive them.
I think that if you can afford designer hand bags and manicures, you don’t need food stamps yet I see these people all of the time buy $300 worth of groceries at a time using their food stamp card. I think that food stamps should be regulated more like the WIC program is (though I know that WIC is not run by the USDA). You should not be able to buy margarita mix on food stamps. It is not a necessity. You should not be allowed to buy $30 worth of candy and soda at a convenience store at 3 am on food stamps. Junk food is not necessary.
Also, why can the government not drug test social service recipients? It seems to me that most employers can, so the government should be able to as well. The amount of money saved on giving out these benefits to people on drugs would counteract the cost of the drug tests themselves. It is infuriating that I, a single working mother living at the poverty line, has never qualified for more than $10 worth of food stamps when I see people who are high on some sort of drug (or drugs) wearing brand new clothes, with designer hand bags and manicures buy so many groceries and still have food stamps left over then get into a brand new SUV and drive away.
I also believe that every state should print the name of the recipient on the EBT card and that cashiers should be required to ask for ID. This would hopefully stop so many people from selling their food stamps and prevent a lot of fraud. There would be people who would be angry, of course, but I think that food stamps are a privileged and not a right.
This article is wrong! On a daily basis as a vendor to convenience stores I see food stamps in use and beyond the fact that they are mainly used by kids to buy candy and chips and pop, I find myself amazed at the types of expensive brand new cars the food stamp recipients drive and the amazing amount of cash they have on them (more than I make in a month) that they use to buy lottery tickets, beer and cigarettes with. As a taxpayer I have no confidence that the food stamp program is using public resources wisely!