Reply #24: If they're going to add investigations for fraud, fine, but ...

[Akoto]

Do it after approval, not before. Getting into assistance programs is already like wading through molasses, and that's under the best of circumstances.

If they find fraud, prosecute. Go back and charge the person for the funds they used. Whatever. Just don't make things even slower by adding on another layer of bureaucracy at the door.

It's worth noting that food assistance is less simple to 'abuse' than in the past. Your circumstances are reviewed. Benefits are now supplied via an EBT card (works like a debit) connected to your name, rather than actual food stamps, so the funds can't be sold away. At many grocery stores, scanners automatically sort goods accepted under the program from those which must be paid with cash. That means people aren't wasting it all on booze and cigarettes, as the old stereotype goes.

When it comes to SSI, you go through reviews. I have financial reviews every six months to examine my situation there, and medical reviews every three years to assess my medical records and the status of my disability.

As to those folks who received disability without being disabled, they must've had some really lenient reviewers. Like, comatose. It took me years when I had everyone, including professors at the University of Miami-UM/Sylvester, saying I was disabled on the record. The first two applications were denied. They used the second denial to put me off a little bit longer, admitting I was disabled, just somehow not quite enough for them.