A new bill in the Ohio Legislature aims to crack down on food stamp fraud.
Republican Sen. Bill Coley has a message for people who shouldn’t be getting food stamps but are.
“Stop it. Stop it right now because we are going to catch you and when we catch you, you are looking at criminal prosecution.”
Coley’s bill would require the state agency that oversees the SNAP program to check its enrollment quarterly against other state databases that track income, lottery winnings and more.
Lisa Hamler-Fugitt with the Ohio Association of Foodbanks says it’s important to crack down on any fraudulent activity but says there’s no reason to believe there’s a lot of it in the food stamp program.
“The SNAP program has one of the lowest error and fraud rates of any federal program,” says Hamler-Fugitt.
Auditor Dave Yost, who backs another bill to require photos on food stamp cards, says fraud in the SNAP program is about five percent.
