Louisiana Suspends EBT Cards for Food Stamp Cheats

reply to post by RedCairo






Bleeding hearts need to remember one rule that will never change...........YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.





It really is that easy people. How's about we only help people willing to help themselves or are so mentally or physically handicapped they can not help themselves. All the rest can learn a little pride in themselves.

elouina
Why must we assume that these are helpless people that can't do more than watch soap operas and talk on their phones all day? All those people were quite able bodied to push heaping full carts of food around a store and unload them at home. And heck, maybe even run back for more. Did you watch all the videos available online? I never saw such energy.

Certainly an interesting look at the situation. I haven't seen the videos, I will go look for some. (Apparently ATS and YouTube are my news. That is either really good or really bad. Maybe both.)

If they need food, then maybe they need to look for another way to get it. A job would be a good start.

Well you're getting into much, much bigger topics with that one.

I grew up around people who were on welfare for life, and they'd have babies promptly in high school and another generation was set. Here, when my kid was young, I met one of her classmates mother, who had 4 kids by different guys and whose doctor happily medicated them with ritalin etc. when they were TWO (2!) so their activity would not inconvenience her. She got everything free, home and food and more, while she fed them pb, mac&ch and dr. pepper in sippy cups. I was never so disgusted in my life. Yeah there are plenty of people who are not only drains on society but who really need to be put out of the darwinian breeding chain and have their kids sent to someone else. Of course, nobody else is going to raise their then-RAD kids but agencies or very miserable foster homes. There is nothing good about any of that.

But there comes a time when either we need to trust the policies that set these guidelines or we need to petition for a review of those guidelines. Probably the time to act on that is not in hysteria over major media which has clearly been promoted to force the population to 'react' as if that's what someone is pulling like puppet strings.

The only people that I could see not being able to earn some spare cash by say sewing, would be those without arms.

I am the sort that would happily shovel barns rather than be unemployed, so I understand the thing about wanting people to work for a living. Maybe you live in a place where you just walk out with a sign or read the paper and this happens. Many of the places I have lived, people, including men, have looked every single day for months, until there is no point to it, until there is no hope left in them, before they finally give up.

Of course, men can mostly just starve and be homeless unless they're permanently injured in some way (many soldiers are); women can get pregnant and they're generally taken care of by the state at that point. I am not disagreeing that people should work for a living of course, what I'm saying is:

Maybe the people who feel vehemently that people should work instead of or as well as get food stamps, should be part of a grass-roots effort to create gainful employment and training opportunities for such persons. I think that would be a great addition to our culture. A lot of people would very much rather work than get benefits -- I know many people who DO work and they COULD receive even *more* in benefits than they get working, but they would rather work. It's just not always as easy as it sounds for everyone.

Suffering unemployment is like suffering crime. It always seems like one thing until you're in that situation and it happens to you and then suddenly it doesn't seem nearly as unlikely as it did and everyone else's armchair rhetoric about it has a different tone.

I haven't got any idea what the circumstance of the people featured in the videos might be.

Frankly I'm still wondering about the morons shooting at the rescue helicopters during Katrina. Apparently every community has got some quotient of these kinds of people.

Pimpintology

WalMart will have to pay for hundreds of thousands of dollars of groceries bought by Louisiana food stamp recipients after a computer glitch gave them unlimited funds on their government-issued credit cards. The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, which oversees the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card program in the state, said WalMart could have instituted an emergency $50 limit for each customer, but chose not to - and as a result, the retail giant must foot the sizable bill.

Oh thank God. I don't have to have a stroke. Thought I might from pure anger. When we install these systems we explain to the consumer that if they flip that switch and take blind purchases they are responsible for the debt and will eat it if they take a bad card. Looks like EBT isn't stupid and placed the blame where the blame should be. Going to have breakfast maybe some blood sugar will calm me down.

I doubt Wally World will eat a nickel of loss on this. They'll pass the cost along to everyone else in price increases. I think Wally World's business license should be suspended for the exact same period of time as the longest 'sentence' on an EBT holder. Then ... they should never be allowed to take subsidized payment from anyone EVER again. I also agree with another poster that Corporate Officers should be tried under existing RICO laws. No message sent = condoned!!

Something, seriously, needs to be done about redistribution of wealth (up to and including child support). Every time it happens there's abuse. I remember my mom waiting on the child support check to arrive so she could buy her cigarettes. Aish!!!

SubTruth
Bleeding hearts need to remember one rule that will never change...........YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.

Thank you. Being on the rather extreme side of conservative, I just wanted, once in my life, someone to call me a bleeding heart. ;-)

reply to post by elouina

Why must we assume that these are helpless people that can't do more than watch soap operas and talk on their phones all day?

I never said helpless. If they applied for food assistance and it was approved they most likely were earning a very poor wage, unemployed or had no assets. I also never claimed they weren't able bodied. You can be able bodied and unemployed.

You seem oddly combative. Have you really never known a person that had to get on food stamps that absolutely abhorred the very idea but did it because they needed to eat?

If they need food, then maybe they need to look for another way to get it. A job would be a good start. Or how about mowing lawns, cleaning homes, raking leaves, sewing, knitting, etc..

Those jobs are taken already. If I tried to start a lawn mowing business right now I wouldn't be able to afford the gas even if I already had the mower. Cleaning homes? Good luck. Raking leaves? Again good luck. The country and homeowners have been tightening those purse strings, and why pay a decent wage to an American when you can just drive down to Home Depot and get better work for half the price? Sewing and knitting, you tell me where that's profitable. Tell me where an average Joe that just lost his job can make enough to pay the mortgage or rent and feed his family.

They could do all those misc small jobs under the table.

But you dislike the 'moochers'?

The only people that I could see not being able to earn some spare cash by say sewing, would be those without arms. And they very well would not be out pushing a heaping cart full of groceries.

I don't know how to sew. I don't know how to knit. Could you direct me and all the other people that are too lazy to get a job where I can be hired on the spot to sew or knit without experience? Obviously we are in great need of knitters and people that can sew. Why haven't these stupid poor folks realized it yet?

Get my point?

I do. I guess I'll just be ashamed for the both of us.

Another idea would be state work for EBT money. You know community service, litter patrol etc... Until their one year fine or more is paid off.

OMG that's SO smart! I wonder if anyone suggested it a time or two! Maybe even in this thread! I guess I would have to actually read the whole thing el oh el.

The people that stole should be held accountable in some way. I don't like your complete dismissal of folks that fall on hard times. I hope you never experience that sort of humiliation and desperation.

There are a ton of good people that roll through checkout lines absolutely mortified to swipe that EBT card. They aren't lazy, avoiding work or trying to scam. They need to eat, and I'd rather pay a few bucks every year to see they do.

So let me see if I've got this straight...


Walmart has to pay back all of the overages on the EBT cards.

PLUS

All EBT recipients who overcharged on their cards will no longer receive those benefits for one full year.


So....


The US government is actually getting paid back twice the monies (and then some) over and above what they had stolen ?


Sounds to me like the US government should have this EBT glitch thing happen more often. It seems to be quite the profitable little enterprise for them. Hell, if done enough times, maybe they could even pay off that multi-trillion dollar debt too.




Don't mind me... just trying to figure out who the real criminals are here, that's all.

reply to post by Snarl


I don't know that part of the system but we did have a social worker posting on this thread. Maybe that person can answer what happens to the store in this case, or better yet what should happen. I doubt seeing how it's Walmart that anything will be done. However I am positive that there is a procedure that takes place when a store abuses the EBT system. I believe they remove their ability to take the cards. I am not sure. Walmart should definitely be punished.

EBT received the bill so they know exactly who did what. Those people will be subject to the same punishment as anyone else that commits welfare fraud. It will be a suspension of benefits and an offset to payback what you owe. I truly hope those people were still eligible for benefits because suspending someone who was not doesn't do much. My take on it was they were buying whatever they could to sell for cash to their friends at pennies on the dollar.

So it could have been a full blown fraud for resell job. This system has been widely abused and they frankly need to start kicking people in the pants. As I have stated in the past here in Texas stores were taking EBT for beer and cigarettes and ringing it up as food. It was millions in fraud before they shut those stores down and they can't track who actually got alcohol and who got food.

CranialSponge
So let me see if I've got this straight...

Walmart has to pay back all of the overages on the EBT cards.

PLUS

All EBT recipients who overcharged on their cards will no longer receive those benefits for one full year.

If I am not mistaken this should be handled as an NSF charge or lack of funds and returned to Walmart. Walmart will then have to eat the cost of what they handed out for free.

reply to post by Domo1


I saw the other posts about working off the money that mirrored my sentiments and there is no problem with repeating my feelings.

During my youth, me, my sister, and my mother were on welfare for a few years. My father left, and my mom was partially blind. And with their help my mom got her GED, and a college education as a secretary. The case workers told us that the only way to get ahead was to do odd jobs. And we all did them. My mother was offered an EXTREMELY well paid government job running a snack bar in a government building (gov program). She turned it down because she wanted to earn the money because she deserved it. They also offered her a job as a secretary. At this time she realized that being partially blind and getting a handout type of job as a secretary was a joke. So she got a well paid union job as a janitor on her own. We pulled our selves up to middle class and never looked back.

If you walked up to my door tomorrow, I could provide you with enough odd jobs in and outside my house to keep you well fed for a while. Totally serious... I just never advertised or looked in the advertisements. Find some older middle class folks that work a lot and just ask them if you can do anything.

Back in the depression, did you ever hear the stories about how men would travel just for the opportunity to stand in line for a job? I know where I live that jobs are not difficult to come by. Some areas are worse than others. In Florida my sister and husband lined up with 250 others for a grocery bagging job. So I lent the money to my sister and brought them back to their home city so they could find jobs. And they both did. My present job I am in, it took me 5 hours to apply and get an interview set up. They were anxious to get me and wanted me in ASAP. So, maybe relocation should be an option?

reply to post by Pimpintology

If I am not mistaken this should be handled as an NSF charge or lack of funds and returned to Walmart. Walmart will then have to eat the cost of what they handed out for free.

Okay, that makes more sense.

Because the external text you posted made it sound like Walmart was having to reimburse the funds too.

Which of course would result in the US government getting paid back at least twice the amount of funds stolen... Which of course would make the US government the real criminals at the end of the day.

CranialSponge
So let me see if I've got this straight...


Walmart has to pay back all of the overages on the EBT cards.

PLUS

All EBT recipients who overcharged on their cards will no longer receive those benefits for one full year.


So....


The US government is actually getting paid back twice the monies (and then some) over and above what they had stolen ?


Sounds to me like the US government should have this EBT glitch thing happen more often. It seems to be quite the profitable little enterprise for them. Hell, if done enough times, maybe they could even pay off that multi-trillion dollar debt too.




Don't mind me... just trying to figure out who the real criminals are here, that's all.

Were do you think the money comes from that funds these cards. Leprechauns riding unicorns.



I would go on but what is the point I am really starting to think people live in a make believe world.

SubTruth

CranialSponge
So let me see if I've got this straight...


Walmart has to pay back all of the overages on the EBT cards.

PLUS

All EBT recipients who overcharged on their cards will no longer receive those benefits for one full year.


So....


The US government is actually getting paid back twice the monies (and then some) over and above what they had stolen ?


Sounds to me like the US government should have this EBT glitch thing happen more often. It seems to be quite the profitable little enterprise for them. Hell, if done enough times, maybe they could even pay off that multi-trillion dollar debt too.




Don't mind me... just trying to figure out who the real criminals are here, that's all.

Were do you think the money comes from that funds these cards. Leprechauns riding unicorns.



I would go on but what is the point I am really starting to think people live in a make believe world.

edit on 9-11-2013 by SubTruth because: (no reason given)

You completely missed the point I was trying to make.

If Walmart had to pay back the funds AND the recipients had to pay back the funds, that would mean that the US government would receive twice the amount of funds that were actually stolen.

Which would make no sense whatsoever and would actually make the government criminals then.

If someone took $100 dollars from you, do they owe you $100 or $200 ??

You don't get back double what was stolen from you.



Relax, take a sip of your coffee... sounds like you need a time out for yourself or something.

CranialSponge
Sounds to me like the US government should have this EBT glitch thing happen more often.... If someone took $100 dollars from you, do they owe you $100 or $200 ??

According to this thread, if they get $350 per month for their family of 5 (no clue of the real #s), and they overcharged $100, they owe $4,200. 12 months of the funds.

RedCairo

CranialSponge
Sounds to me like the US government should have this EBT glitch thing happen more often.... If someone took $100 dollars from you, do they owe you $100 or $200 ??

According to this thread, if they get $350 per month for their family of 5 (no clue of the real #s), and they overcharged $100, they owe $4,200. 12 months of the funds.

Who knows what the real numbers are, but just for argument's sake:

Then maybe the $4,100 difference is in lieu of jail time ?

*shrug*

That's a pretty hefty punishment to pay for a $100 crime, IMO.

Sounds like maybe the government is taking advantage of an opportune moment to add some funds back into the military budget.




Edit to add:

If it were up to me, the punishment would be that the recipient pay back the $100 owing plus a mandatory community service (mowing boulevards, plucking weeds, picking up garbage, etc) equal to the amount of monies stolen (say 20 hours @ $5.00/hr).

Would that not benefit the community better all around ?

Afterall, it was the community (the taxpayer) they stole the funds from.

But instead, you're going to have a drastic increase in crime rates around those areas due to people not having access to much needed food stamps for an entire year.

The stupidity of government never ceases to boggle my brain.

How can this be considered any different than writing bad checks?
its the same principal, the same act, the same fraud.
If you eat at a restaurant and try to run on the bill its also
theft...... this is theft, pretending it is not is an apathy
i cannot even understand.

Just because someone is poor does not give them the
right to commit theft or fraud and get away with it.

I would like to see true justice in this country for both
rich and poor alike, i would like to see those who are
rich serve their jail time just like someone who is poor
would for the same crime. That is equality.

benrl

wantsome
I'm disabled and have a bridge card I would have never participated in something like that. I was hoping someone would nail their ass to the wall for doing that. They got what they deserve.

And just screw the children who are now assed out for food for a year because of poor parental decision making...

If anything stricter controls are needed for these people, not taking away of the one lifeline their children could have.

Im all for "correcting" the problem, denying food for a year though...


eta:
76% of EBT households have elderly or children under their care.

edit on 8-11-2013 by benrl because: (no reason given)

They're just lucky they didn't go to jail. Poor decisions from parents have haunted children since the beginning of time. You ever think that is going to stop?
If these people cannot control themselves, what business do they have, having children. They obviously can't take care of themselves so why breed?
If I were in charge, I would kick them off indefinitely. They give a bad name to the people that don't abuse it and cost the working people money that could better go to free healthcare.

CranialSponge

SubTruth

CranialSponge
So let me see if I've got this straight...


Walmart has to pay back all of the overages on the EBT cards.

PLUS

All EBT recipients who overcharged on their cards will no longer receive those benefits for one full year.


So....


The US government is actually getting paid back twice the monies (and then some) over and above what they had stolen ?


Sounds to me like the US government should have this EBT glitch thing happen more often. It seems to be quite the profitable little enterprise for them. Hell, if done enough times, maybe they could even pay off that multi-trillion dollar debt too.




Don't mind me... just trying to figure out who the real criminals are here, that's all.

Were do you think the money comes from that funds these cards. Leprechauns riding unicorns.



I would go on but what is the point I am really starting to think people live in a make believe world.

edit on 9-11-2013 by SubTruth because: (no reason given)

You completely missed the point I was trying to make.

If Walmart had to pay back the funds AND the recipients had to pay back the funds, that would mean that the US government would receive twice the amount of funds that were actually stolen.

Which would make no sense whatsoever and would actually make the government criminals then.

If someone took $100 dollars from you, do they owe you $100 or $200 ??

You don't get back double what was stolen from you.



Relax, take a sip of your coffee... sounds like you need a time out for yourself or something.

Walmart had to pay back the funds, but the people didn't have to pay it back. They just simply don't get it paid out to them. If I don't give you $20, it doesn't make sense to say that you paid me $20 just because you didn't receive it from me.

superman2012 They obviously can't take care of themselves so why breed?

How to wipe out our species in two generations: make it so only financially secure people have children.

I waited till I was 30 to have a kid, just one, in part for that reason. But as population numbers go, ours (without immigrants) is low enough in the US without waiting until people are financially ok...

Obviously those who took advantage of this situation are criminals, and should be treated as such.
As stated here many times...when your on the program, you know what you have available, and the excuse that you thought you got a raise in benefits is a load of crap.
You'd have to be high to think like that.

That being said...

I again raise the issue

'Drug tests for social benefit recipients'

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Maybe that will help clear their heads

X

benrl

wantsome
I'm disabled and have a bridge card I would have never participated in something like that. I was hoping someone would nail their ass to the wall for doing that. They got what they deserve.

And just screw the children who are now assed out for food for a year because of poor parental decision making...

If anything stricter controls are needed for these people, not taking away of the one lifeline their children could have.

Im all for "correcting" the problem, denying food for a year though...


eta:
76% of EBT households have elderly or children under their care.

edit on 8-11-2013 by benrl because: (no reason given)

You make it sound as if the people that did this are ever concerned for their own children. If they were concerned about raising their kids properly, they'd never have done this to start with. Arming them with skills on how to beat the system is not going to help these kids break free from the life their parents have created for them.

If you think these parents did this for their children's sake, you're badly mistaken. Don't be a blatant thief, then hide behind your child when you get caught ! That's sickening.

RedCairo

CranialSponge
Sounds to me like the US government should have this EBT glitch thing happen more often.... If someone took $100 dollars from you, do they owe you $100 or $200 ??

According to this thread, if they get $350 per month for their family of 5 (no clue of the real #s), and they overcharged $100, they owe $4,200. 12 months of the funds.

It's a new concept called punishment.