The U.S. Department of Agriculture-administered food stamp program does not check the Social Security Number (SSNs) of some of its 46.3 million recipients, many of whom are using the numbers of dead people and invalid SSNs to get benefits potentially totaling $1.1 million a month, according to a government audit.
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) at the USDA “also has been looking at recipients who misrepresent themselves to receive benefits,” testified USDA Inspector General Phyllis Fong before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today. “Recently, OIG has conducted a series of audits of 10 States to assess how they used participant databases to identify potentially fraudulent recipients, and we have completed work in 5 States.”
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