USDA: 35,891 Retailers Engaged In Food Stamp Fraud

"Why, We need a Govt. Program! That'll fix Everything!"

cnsnews
Terence P. Jeffrey | February 26, 2018 | 5:35 PM EST

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has published a report estimating that 35,891 food retailers around the country engaged in food stamp fraud, illegally “trafficking” more than $1 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits annually over the three-year period from 2012 through 2014.

“Retailer trafficking of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits occurs primarily when SNAP recipients sell their benefits for cash to food retailers, often at a discount,” the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service said in a summary of the report.

“SNAP benefits are permitted for the purchase of eligible food items from authorized food retailers,” said the report. “The sale or exchange of SNAP benefits for anything other than food sold by an authorized SNAP retailer is illegal.”

The report, published in September 2017, looked at food stamp trafficking in 2012, 2013 and 2014, estimating that more than $1 billion in SNAP benefits were “trafficked” annually during that time period and that about 11.8 percent of the 303,522 retail stores authorized to accept SNAP benefits over the period were involved in trafficking.

“An estimated $1.077 billion in SNAP benefits annually were trafficked and thereby diverted from their intended purpose,” said the report.

“Overall, about 1.5 percent of total SNAP benefits were trafficked; and approximately 11.8 percent of all authorized SNAP stores engaged in trafficking,” it said.

Some types of stores were more likely to engage in food stamp trafficking than other types, according to the report.

This chart enumerating, by type, the stores estimated to have engaged in food-stamp trafficking appears on page 9 of the USDA report:



Publicly owned stories did not traffic in food stamp benefits, the report said.

“As there were no publicly owned stores found to have trafficked, privately owned stories account for 100 percent of all benefit dollars trafficked although they account for only 54.6 percent of all SNAP redemptions,” it said.

Larger stores were less likely to traffic in food stamps than smaller stores and “convenience stores” were the most likely of all to engage in trafficking.

Of the 35,891 food retailers the report estimated engaged in food stamp trafficking, only 30 were categorized as “supermarkets” and only 42 were “large groceries.”

By contrast, 1,700 were medium-sized groceries; 4,850 were small groceries, and 25,954 were “convenience stores.”

While only 0.07 percent of supermarkets engaged in food stamp trafficking, according to the report, 23.32 percent of small groceries did and 19.42 percent of convenience stores.

“Trafficking was most likely to occur in the most urban areas,” the report said.

“The store violation rate rises in accordance with the level of urbanization,” it said. “The most rural areas have the lowest story violation rate of just above 5 percent and the most urban areas have the highest store violation rate of 14.4 percent.”

“Trafficking is defined as buying or selling benefits for cash or consideration other than eligible food, and the penalty is permanent disqualification,” said the report. “Permanent disqualification occurs when a retailer’s authorization to redeem SNAP benefits is revoked.”

A USDA summary of activity in the SNAP program in fiscal 2016 indicated that there were 1,845 retailers permanently disqualified from the program that year.

A breakdown by states showed that the largest number of retailers permanently disqualified from SNAP in fiscal 2016 were in New York (448), the second largest number was in Florida (175), the third largest was in California (133) and the fourth largest was in New Jersey (130).


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Thank You Mr Jeffrey and CNS

Govt. (USDA) Wants $30K Shopping Carts to Tell Food Stampers To Eat Healthy, After Ordering Submachine Guns With 30 Round Magazines: UPDATE, Also Wants Body Armor

frontpagemag.com;

July 15, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 9 Comments

What a Brave New World this is. And I do mean the book. At this rate we’re only a decade away from having food inspectors visit your home.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is suggesting major changes to grocery stores to “nudge” Americans to purchase healthier foods when they shop.

Because obviously if they’re not eating the way they’re supposed to, it’s because they haven’t been properly programmed.

The agency commissioned an “expert panel” to make recommendations on how to guide the more than 47 million Americans on food stamps into spending their benefits on fruits and vegetables.

The USDA could just force them to do it, but that’s not condescending enough.

“In this approach, the supermarket is the classroom and shoppers receive support on how to maximize their healthy choices using products retailers promote via the weekly store circular,” the report said.

Under liberalism, everything is meant to be a classroom. But that’s what happens when you have a nanny state run by academics. This will…

A. Cost people who pay for their food more money as the supermarket passes the regulatory burden to them

B. Create more liberal consulting jobs

C. Accomplish nothing

Another idea included a point-based system where food stamp recipients could receive movie tickets in exchange for healthy food purchases.

Great idea. We’re giving them free food. Let’s also give them free movie tickets. Working Americans have too much money anyway.

Grocery store staff could also be used as “ambassadors” for the USDA’s agenda.

We’re talking about people getting paid minimum wage to stock shelves. Now they’re supposed to tell you to eat healthy?

The “MyCart grocery cart” would provide dividers for shoppers to make sure they are selecting enough items in each “MyPlate” category, the USDA’s food icon.

The cart would be color-coded, physically divided, and have a system installed so that when the shopping cart reaches its healthy “threshold” it would congratulate the customer.

The report estimated that implementing the new carts would cost roughly $30,000 for every store. The change would be costly. For instance, Safeway, Inc. would need to spend $40.05 million to introduce the carts at its 1,335 stores in the U.S.

And yes you would end up paying for these $30K shopping carts which would survive about a month before breaking down. But we would finally all be living in Idiocracy at last.

Next step, talking fridges, talking microwaves and surveillance cameras in your kitchens. Just little nudges from the totalitarian nanny state.

Thank You Mr Greenfield and Front Page Mag.

And this would be Which USDA?

weaselzippers;

Department of Agriculture Orders Submachine Guns With 30 Round Magazines, UPDATE, Also Seeks Body Armor

The firepower seems a bit excessive, no?

Via Breitbart:

A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks “the commercial acquisition of submachine guns [in] .40 Cal. S&W.”

According to the solicitation, the Dept. of Agriculture wants the guns to have an “ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding,” and a “30 rd. capacity” magazine.

They also want the submachine guns to have a “sling,” be “lightweight,” and have an “oversized trigger guard for gloved operation.”

Keep reading…

Update: Which begs the obvious question, why do we need body armor-wearing, machine gun-wielding Department of Agriculture agents?

A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks “the commercial acquisition of ballistic vests, compliant with NIJ 0101.06 for Level IIIA Ballistic Resistance of body armor.”

According to the solicitation, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General,” seeks “Body Armor [that] is gender specific, lightweight, [having] trauma plate/pad (hard or soft), [and] concealable carrier.” The order includes “tactical vest, undergarment (white), identification patches, accessories (6 pouches), body armor carry bag, and professional measurements.”

Keep reading…

Thank You Zip and Breitbart. 


You never know. Somebody might try to disable the food police speaker on one of those $30K Smart Carts, or perhaps even reprogram it to send the Food Stampers over to Micky D's.


This November you Can elect people to Washington who'd like Very much to take the checkbook away from Federal Agencies like this.

Send An Ambulance To The US Treasury: There's Been Another Attack of Govt. Benevolence: USDA Pays Subsidies To 30,000 DEAD Farmers

CNSNews;
USDA Paid 'Improper Subsidies To 1,799 Dead Farmers and Proper Ones to 28,613 Dead Farmers

August 6, 2013 - 11:33 AM

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By Ryan Kierman

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture made farm subsidy payments to 28,613 dead farmers between 2011 and 2012, of which 1,799 were deemed "improper," according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued in June.

The report, entitled “USDA Needs to Do More to Prevent Improper Payments to Deceased Individuals,” said USDA's Farm Service Agency identified “thousands of deceased individuals who were paid $3.3 million in improper payments after their dates of death, of which FSA has recovered approximately $1 million.”

GAO determined that about 6 percent of the total subsidy payments should not have been sent due to clerical errors or outright fraud.

An FSA spokesperson told CNSNews.com that most farm subsidy payments made by the USDA are based upon the farmer fulfilling his contractual obligation; for example, participating in a farmland conservation program. In the event of the farmer’s death, payments would be made to the farmer’s survivors or corporate successor.

“Improper payments" are those sent to individuals who had not properly filed documentation and who had subsequently died, or sent to relatives who had filled out the documentation and signed it on behalf of the farm’s now-deceased owner -- something not permitted under FSA regulations. Most of those cases involve a legitimate error, the spokesman added, but some are fraudulent.

The FSA distributes $20 billion annually in farm subsidies to roughly 1 million individuals, averaging about $20,000 per person. Approximately $7.4 billion is spent on farm commodity and conservation programs; another $4 billion goes for financial and technical assistance; and $8.3 billion is spent to cover roughly 60 percent of farmers’ crop insurance premiums.

To prevent future subsidy payments to dead farmers, the GAO recommended that the Secretary of Agriculture implement procedures to match crop insurance records with the Social Security Administration’s master death file, ensure that all subsidy payments are “supported by documentation,” and review “each subsidy provided on behalf of a deceased individual to ensure that an improper subsidy was not made.”

Thank You Mr Kierman and CNS.

Just like Mental Health, which is So good for American Citizens that it has to be Defrauded and Forced into them.

Just like Mental Health, which would Starve to Death Without the Govt. Funding it.