Audit: Food stamps awarded to dead Ohioans

An audit of Ohio’s food stamp program found dozens of cases of dead people being awarded benefits and other instances of potential fraud, Auditor Dave Yost announced Tuesday.

The findings included 36 cases in which recipients were issued $24,406 in benefits more than a year after their death, with $13,598 being spent in nine cases.

“There needs to be tighter controls over these dollars,” Yost said in a news release. “The death benefit comparison needs to be made quarterly to safeguard our money.”

Among other suspect findings were $28.5 million in even-dollar transactions (exceeding $100) spent at 3,200 retailers.

“Even-dollar transactions are not common when purchasing food, particularly at small retailers where inventories are more limited,” the audit said. “The risk could be less at large retailers where recipients are more likely to use their full benefit amount, typically issued in whole dollars.”

Ohio’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program spends about $2.5 billion each year. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says it has already begun taking steps to reduce the risk in the SNAP program.

Food stamp benefits were issued to 824,231 Ohio recipients and their families in 2015. The first audit of the system was conducted in 2011.

Other findings of the audit released Tuesday:

High-risk retailers, recipients: The state generated seven reports that identified retailers and recipients as "very high risk" for fraud. Some 151,360 recipients were identified on multiple reports; four were flagged on all seven reports; 114 were flagged on six reports; 1,091 were flagged on five.

Of the retailers, 37 were flagged on five of the reports, and 1,412 were flagged on four.

“There’s clearly a problem with some of these recipients and retailers,” Yost said. “The state and its county representatives need to aggressively review these cases and root out the fraud — because there’s no doubt fraud is occurring. The data creates an easy-to-follow roadmap to find it.”

Out-of-state spending: More than $28.7 million in SNAP funds were spent outside of Ohio by 118,316 recipients. Auditors said that excessive use of the cards out of state could indicate either the recipient does not live in Ohio, is receiving benefits in more than one state, or is selling their card and benefits.

The most activity occurred in Florida, where 9,174 recipients spent $2.1 million, with most being used in Orlando ($119,130) and Jacksonville ($104,091). Georgia was second, followed by Minnesota, Texas and Tennessee.

Excessive balances: The most a recipient can receive per month is $1,169 (for a family of eight), but 173 recipients had balances on their cards greater than $5,000. Those recipients — including one with a balance of $20,610 — collectively had balances worth more than $1.2 million.

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