Food Stamp Fraud

The Daily Signal reports the governor of Maine tried an experiment requiring able bodied adults without dependents (ABAWD) getting food stamps to work, get training, or provide community service. See what happened:

When ABAWD recipients refused to participate, their food stamp benefits ceased. In the first three months after Maine’s work policy went into effect, its caseload of able-bodied adults without dependents plummeted by 80 percent, falling from 13,332 recipients in Dec. 2014 to 2,678 in March 2015.

A work requirement substantially reduces welfare fraud because insisting a recipient be in the welfare office periodically interferes with holding a hidden job. Recipients cannot be in two places at once. Faced with a work requirement, many recipients with hidden jobs simply leave the rolls. No doubt, a significant part of the rapid caseload decline in Maine involves flushing fraudulent double-dippers out of the welfare system.

The Federal Government provides most of the funding for food stamps, aka SNAP. It should make this requirement mandatory for all programs as a condition of continued funding. Hat tip to Lucianne.com for the link.