The state of Michigan announced today that it has received roughly $740,000 to improve efforts to prevent food stamp fraud.
The department was awarded a grant from the USDA to improve efforts to detect and prevent Food Assistance fraud.
Bob Wheaton is with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. He said last year the department discovered 3,797 food assistance fraud cases.
“The total dollar amount of that fraud was $9 million so it’s a significant amount of money but we also want to emphasize that’s a very tiny portion of the people who receive food assistance benefits.”
Food assistance fraud cases constitute roughly 0.3% of total food assistance recipients in Michigan.
Wheaton emphasized the department's support of the food assistance program.
“You know our department does believe very strongly that the food assistance program is a valuable program and we’re very much committed to that program but we do want to make sure it’s eligible families accessing the program and there’s program integrity.”
The new grant will go to improving how fraud is detected.
“There’s advanced analytic capabilities that can be purchased that analyze food assistance program cases and look for something that looks like it might not quite be right where there would be fraud,” Wheaton said.
Peter Ruark is with the Michigan League for Public Policy. He said the low fraud numbers show that the food assistance program is working well in Michigan.
“It’s important to mention that 0.3% is referring to improper payment. Some of that can be due to errors, either on the side of MDHHS or on the side of the recipient. Not all overpayment of benefits is necessarily fraudulent.”
Ruark said food assistance is good for Michigan and it is important that the program is preserved.