Welfare money down the drain

In a recent news article by LA Times, $69 million in California welfare money has been drawn out of the state. $11.8 million is spent in Las Vegas at casinos or taken from ATMs, other cities like Hawaii, Miami, and Guam money is spent as well.

What concerns me the most is that welfare is intended to help the needy that do not have enough money to get by on their rent or clothing for their children. And to find out that my well earned paid money that goes to the government, which then in return goes to someone that decided a bet on a gamble is well worth it.

Robert Hollenbeck, a fraud investigator for the Fresno County district attorney's office said "How can they go somehwere like Hawaii and be legit on aid..they can't...this is money for basic subsistence needs."

It is even mentioned that many Las Vegas casinos block the use of welfare cards in ATMs on gambling floors, which makes the ATM from nearby gas stations easy access to the use of the money. And you would think that the government has control over the where abouts of the money, right? Think again! Investigators who state autorities say are responsible for finding fraud abuse, don't ask questions about whereabouts on a welfare card unless the recipient has been gone for more than 30 days.

What may be the cause of this uproar, according to a state audit last year found that none of California's counties were folloewng up on their recipients to help root out fraud, including matches that list clients ecieving duplicate aid from other states, and those that are ineligible because they're in prison and others that have died.

It's amazing to know that our tax dollars are going to people who sit on their lazy bum and think its okay. Don't get me wrong, not all welfare recipients are like this, there are honest ones, but you have the greedy ones too.

I think from this situation our government can learn something from this incident. I believe if a clearer background check and very active follow-up sessions are done on the recipients, it would help root out the fraud issue and our government would be in a very healthy situation.

NEWS ARTICLE:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-welfare-20101004,0,5787669.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+latimes/news/local+(L.A.+Times+-+California+|+Local+News)&utm_content=Google+Reader