November 2024

Snap EBT Violations Lawyer California

California is expanding SNAP benefits for thousands after Governor Gavin Newsom approved a new bill designed to ensure food security within the state.

Millions of people qualify for benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps low-income Americans afford nutritious foods and avoid going hungry every year. SNAP is known as CalFresh in California and serves nearly 5 million residents.

The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Electronic Benefits Transfer Pilot Project boosted benefits for Californians using SNAP by offering $1 back on EBT cards for every $1 of CalFresh benefits spent on fresh fruits and vegetables. The program ended in April after running out of money, but after AB 3229 was passed, the state will be looking into making the pilot permanent.

“AB 3229 will ensure a long-term solution to making the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Pilot a permanent program so that CalFresh recipients can continue to benefit from supplemental benefits,” California Assemblymember Alex Lee told Newsweek. “It’s all the more important when CalFresh families already saw their benefits drop as COVID-19 federal aid for extra CalFresh benefits ended last year.”

“This is great news for those who qualify, as not only does it equate to a continuation of a program that is needed for low-income families, but it’s also one that promotes healthier food options,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.

Lee first introduced the legislation, which allowed SNAP recipients to get up to an extra $60 for nutritious food each month.

“The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Pilot Project is highly effective in addressing food insecurity,” Lee said in a statement. “It provided tens of thousands of Californians with healthier and more nutritious food. AB 3229 is part of my broader efforts to ensure that this program continues to benefit the most vulnerable Californians.”

The CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable program originally went live in 2023, but since the pilot ran out of funding, Lee secured $10 million to revive the program.

“The benefit provides a dollar-for-dollar benefit for those eligible on the purchase of fresh fruits and vegetables,” Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. “This helped beneficiaries spend money on healthier options that are seen to lower unhealthy outcomes.”

Under AB 3229, the state must evaluate the pilot program and plan to transition the project into a permanent offering in California.

A person shopping at a grocery store in Rosemead, California, on August 14. California has expanded SNAP benefits under a new program helping recipients access fruits and vegetables.

The California Department of Social Services must submit a report to the legislature by July 1 of next year outlining the necessary steps to transition the pilot into a long-term program.

“With the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable EBT Program, California has a great program that reduces hunger, improves health, and supports California’s agricultural economy,” Eli Zigas, the executive director of Fullwell, a sponsor of AB 3229, said in a statement.

“We are grateful that Assemblymember Alex Lee, along with his colleagues in the Legislature, and Governor Newsom see the value of this program and want a plan from the Department of Social Services for how to scale it up in the near future. The passage of AB 3229 is a positive step in accelerating the growth of this program’s reach and impact.”

Food insecurity is common across California, with roughly a quarter of state households reporting issues accessing affordable or healthy food in 2024, according to the California Association of Food Banks.

Not having access to healthy food can also cause health care costs to surge in the long run. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that food insecurity would cost the state over $7 billion yearly in health care.

“This bill will improve the health and well-being of people in Santa Clara County and across the state by increasing access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Angelica Diaz, Healthy Communities branch director at the County of Santa Clara Public Health Department, said in a statement.

“Part of our commitment to equity is working to remove barriers – like insufficient access to healthy fruits and vegetables – that contribute to poor health down the road, and that’s why making this pilot program permanent is so important.”

More than 85 grocery stores and some farmers’ markets participated in the pilot for the CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable program.

Lee said that just in Santa Clara County, more than 7,200 households benefited, and families collectively received $460,000 more to use on healthy food between fall 2023 and April 2024.

Beene said that food assistance programs typically do little to encourage more health-conscious choices when distributing food to recipients.

Snap EBT Violations Lawyer California

Snap EBT Violation Attorney Chicago Illinois

CHICAGO (WLS) — People receiving food stamp benefits in Illinois may not be getting enough to adequately feed their family, a report from the Urban Institute research group said.

The study revealed a gap between what Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients receive every month and the cost of an average meal. Consumer advocates argue the rising cost of food prices justify a boost in the federal SNAP program, which will benefit not just those who receive food stamps but our entire country.

“All I get is Social Security, which is not a lot of money. Without the food benefits, I wouldn’t be able to eat,” said June Campbell.

Campbell is among nearly 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP, but she said lately it’s been hard to make her food stamps stretch.

A study conducted by the nonpartisan research group Urban Institute found that SNAP benefits are falling short. Their data shows the average maximum SNAP benefit in 2023 was $2.84 per meal, which is $0.53 less than the average cost of a modestly priced meal, $3.37.

Elaine Waxman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, said the extra money per meal out of pocket quickly adds up for families.

“What that tells us is that the SNAP program, while we know is very effective in reducing food insecurity, is really under-resourced and is not providing enough resources for people to really put food on the table,” she said.

Waxman said four in 10 households in the U.S. use SNAP as their only resource for purchasing food, and when those benefits run out, the family suffers.

“What that means then they have to develop coping strategies. So, they buy cheaper less-nutritious-but-more-calories options to make things meet. They have to turn to charitable food,” she said. “I think the thing that is particular worrisome for us is that we know that food insecurity is associated with higher risk of a number of health conditions like diabetes, like hypertension.”

IN 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture made updates to the “Thrifty Food Plan,” which estimates the cost of a healthy diet and is used to determine SNAP benefit amounts. It was the first permanent update to the Thrifty Food Plan in 45 years.

“It actually increased the value of the SNAP benefit by about 21%. But, the statistic we just talked about shows that that’s still didn’t get us to where we needed to be,” Waxman explained.

The USDA, which oversees the SNAP program, told the I-Team significant steps have been taken to increase benefits, saying, “SNAP is the most powerful, far-reaching tool available to ensure people with low incomes can purchase healthy food. USDA’s major food assistance programs are designed to respond to changing economic conditions, including increases in food prices, and help alleviate the effects of inflation on American families.”

SNAP recipients also received a temporary boost in their benefits form COVID-19.

“Food insecurity dropped dramatically during that time, despite that fact that a lot of people were temporality out of work or facing other cost pressure maybe having been ill,” Waxman said. “So we saw that a boost in SNAP benefits can really make a big difference. Unfortunately, that expired at the end of the pandemic. We understand that it was a temporary benefit, but we did learn that lesson.”

Campbell hopes lawmakers and the federal government will push to provide more SNAP assistance as she struggles to put food on the table.

“You go in here, I just spend $150. I’m only one person. When my husband was alive, $150 would feed us for a month. But not now,” she said.

The Urban Institute said SNAP benefits are an issue everyone in our country should get behind, because without nutritional meals, the rate of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension increases, which results in higher healthcare costs for everyone.

Illinois Congressman Jonathan Jackson, who sits on the Agriculture Committee, said he is actively engaged in efforts to expand SNAP through a bipartisan farm bill. The current farm bill expires in September

Snap EBT Violation Attorney Chicago Illinois

Snap Violation Attorney Kansas Missouri

A scam to steal food stamp benefits from some of Kansas City’s poorest families picked up again this summer.

Thieves installed inconspicuous gadgets at grocery store checkouts, many along Independence Avenue in Kansas City’s northeast, and skimmed the data — and dollars — right off the EBT (electronic benefit transfer) cards the state issues to distribute aid.

Missouri officials believe they have largely contained this latest wave of fraud that’s stolen grocery money from about 1,500 people.

“(But) they’ll come up with another scheme,” said Dana Carrington, chief of investigations with Missouri’s Department of Social Services.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is one of 15 federal food aid programs. Combined, they reach a quarter of all Americans each year. SNAP dollars, which are designated to low-income people, can be used to buy groceries.

Around 330,000 Missouri families receive the food benefit each month. In fiscal year 2024, the state paid out $1.6 billion in SNAP benefits through EBT cards. This year the state added summer food aid, known as Sun Bucks. So far just over $35 million of that summer aid has been paid out, also using EBT cards.

States distribute SNAP on EBT cards that look, and can be used, like a credit card. But unlike credit cards, which contain a chip that makes data harder to steal, EBT cards leave information like account numbers and PINs unencrypted. When someone swipes an EBT card’s magnetic strip through a phony card reader, they’re basically handing over the keys to their food stamp

How SNAP or food stamp dollars are stolen

Carrington said criminals often place skimmers at self-checkout stations in small bodegas where security is limited. Most often, the stores are in poor neighborhoods. Once an EBT card is swiped and account data is captured, criminals can transfer it to a cloned card. And that’s how money is stolen.

In the latest scam to target Kansas CIty, criminals use the EBT card data they’ve stolen in Kansas City and elsewhere. Then they cash that information in by setting up phony storefronts in New York City. That makes it look like they were buying groceries there, when they were actually just draining accounts.

Carrington said his team in Missouri is sharing information with New York law enforcement agencies. So far, though, no one has been prosecuted.

“These are our most vulnerable families,” said Karen Siebert, advocacy and public policy adviser for Harvesters — The Community Food Network. “That’s heartbreaking.”

Victims can apply to have stolen funds reimbursed. Carrington said that process typically takes a couple of weeks. The federal government has money set aside for reimbursing victims of card skimming.

During the third quarter of 2024, the federal government spent $53.5 million reimbursing states for stolen benefits, resulting from almost 288,000 fraudulent transactions. Since Congress began reimbursing states for stolen benefits two years ago, the government has replaced almost $151 million worth of benefits.

Those federal reimbursement funds are only guaranteed through Dec 20. After that, federal money designated for reimbursements will run out if Congress doesn’t act.

While some states are looking at issuing more secure chipped EBT cards, Missouri doesn’t have plans to do that. Chipped cards are more expensive, and their cost would fall to states without federal help.

Missouri is among five states selected last year to test mobile payment technology, so recipients could spend benefits using their mobile phones. But it is unclear when that will begin, or if it will continue under the new federal administration.

In the meantime, Carrington said it’s important for people to take precautions so they can avoid being victims of benefit skimming, which could affect any benefits paid using EBT cards. In Missouri, that includes SNAP, Sun Bucks and Temporary Assistance.

He advises people to: avoid self-checkout stations at stores, which are more likely to have card skimmers; change their card identification or PIN number frequently; and set up their account to block out-of-state purchases.

Snap Violations and EBT disqualification in New York

Big changes could be coming for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which faces new scrutiny as the incoming Trump Administration searches for ways to slash the federal budget to offset tax cuts in 2025, according to a story in the Washington Post.

That could be a problem not only for the roughly 34 million SNAP recipients, but also for grocery retailers across the board that collect billions in revenue through the program. 

The federal government spent an estimated $119.4 billion on SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2022. Additionally, $5.5 billion was allotted for administrative and other expenses associated with the program, which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. 

The Pew report noted that SNAP is one of the federal government’s largest social welfare programs, comparable in size to Medicare, which cost $747.2 billion in FY22; Medicaid at $591.9 billion; veterans’ benefits at $161.2 billion; and unemployment compensation at $33.1 billion.

The Washington Post story notes that such entitlement programs, particularly SNAP and Medicaid, could see significant changes in the coming years, such as spending caps. 

Speaking with off-the-record sources close to the administration, the Washington Post notes that discussions on program cuts and spending limits are preliminary but focus on Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025. 

Trump has promised to extend the tax cuts, which is estimated to add $4 trillion to the national debt, which currently stands at $36 billion. 

Republicans are already looking closely at Medicaid and SNAP cuts. Rep. Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican who serves as chair of the House Budget Committee, said last week that a work requirement for Medicaid could net $100 billion, and another $160 billion could come from requiring more frequent check-ins on Medicaid eligibility, according to the Washington Post article. 

Lawmakers are also considering stripping the president of the authority to increase SNAP benefits, a power originally granted the executive office in the 2017 farm bill. 

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research institute, noted in a report released in September that the House Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus of Republicans legislators, and the Republican House Budget Committee both call for massive cuts to SNAP over the next decade. 

The Republican Study Committee calls for a roughly 22% cut to SNAP benefits and rescinding the federal government’s 2021 Thrifty Food Plan, “which adjusted SNAP benefits to reflect the cost of a healthy diet based on today’s dietary guidelines and food consumption patterns.”

“This cut would affect 41 million people participating in SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. (HBC and Project 2025 also sharply criticize the Thrifty Food Plan increase but are not clear about rescinding it.),” the study noted. “And Project 2025 calls for gutting summer food assistance programs that children in families with low incomes rely on when school is out, which could include the new Summer EBT program that is expected to provide grocery benefits to more than 21 million children this summer.”

Arrington said in the Washington Post article that streamlining entitlement programs would help preserve the benefits and that Republicans do not aim to penalize recipients. 

Newsweek reports that Republicans have also discussed limiting the kinds of foods SNAP recipients could purchase with their benefits or following an earlier Trump proposal from 2017 to create “harvest boxes” that would replace an estimated 40% of SNAP benefits with a government-funded food delivery box including only non-perishable items. 

That proposal, which was never enacted, was opposed by the National Grocers Association. In late 2017, the NGA sent a letter to Capitol Hill, urging lawmakers to oppose the plan. 

“History demonstrates that when the government doles out food, not only is it inefficient and more expensive to the taxpayer, but low-income populations also end up hungry and malnourished,” the NGA wrote. 

While SNAP beneficiaries have the most to lose from a reduction in the program, grocers across the country also are likely to see a substantial hit to the bottom line. Recipients spend an average of $740 a month on groceries using SNAP, according to a recent study by data analytics firm Numerator. 

Numerator’s SNAP Shopper Scorecard, released in October, showed that more than a quarter (25.8%) of SNAP dollars are spent at Walmart. Kroger was the next biggest recipient, collecting 9.1%, followed by Albertsons at 6.5%, Costco at 6.2%, Sam’s Club at 3.8%, Ahold Delhaize at 3.4%, 7-Eleven at 2.9%, Dollar General and Publix each at 2.6%, and Aldi at 2.1%.

Snap Violations and EBT disqualification in New York