Crackdowns target welfare cheats

By Judy Keen, USA TODAY

States and localities across the nation are taking novel steps to crack down on suspected welfare cheats, including mandatory home visits, sophisticated database searches and even DNA tests.

Some people suspected of welfare fraud in Minnesota's Anoka County are being ordered to be swabbed for DNA samples. The county has prosecuted eight criminal cases in the past three years after using DNA to identify a supposedly absent parent. To get illegal benefits, applicants for public aid lied about whether their children's father lived in the home. Only single-parent families are eligible for some aid.

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Jack Heacock of the United Council on Welfare Fraud, a professional group, says tight budgets have resulted in layoffs of investigators and increased emphasis on technology to catch cheaters. How other communities are tracking public aid fraud:

•San Diego County, Calif., investigators visit the homes of public aid applicants to verify occupancy of an eligible child, check assets and make sure an "absent" parent doesn't live in the home. The practice has been upheld in court. "We have zero tolerance toward welfare fraud," says John Haley, commander of the financial crimes division for the district attorney. In 2009, inconsistencies were found in 24% of 23,671 applications, saving $4.5 million.

•Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare saved taxpayers $75 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year with sophisticated anti-fraud and abuse-detection software that analyzes 27 million medical assistance claims each year "in ways never before anticipated," spokesman Michael Race says. Applicants also are checked against 14 databases, including out-of-state employment and federal deceased-persons records.

•In Michigan, some legislators want to crack down on college students' use of debit cards that replaced food stamps, along with the trading of benefits for drugs and alcohol. State Rep. Dave Agema, a Republican, wants random drug tests for welfare recipients, photos on food cards and sting operations on campuses. "We've got to tighten things up," he says.

•In Anoka County, Minn., as the recession increases the need for assistance, it's vital to ensure recipients really qualify, says Bryan Lindberg, chief of the property and drug crime division for the county attorney. "One thing we battle is this sense of entitlement some people have: 'I'm entitled to that money, and I can do what I want to get it,' " he says.

Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota, calls Anoka County's use of DNA tests "a civil liberties minefield." The ACLU hasn't challenged the policy, he says, but "obviously this is the sort of Big Brother thing the ACLU has been preaching about forever."

In a 2009 Anoka County case, a woman who said she didn't know the identities of her children's father had received $222,704 in public assistance since 1992. DNA tests identified the man who fathered a minor child still living in the home. The woman pleaded guilty and will be sentenced Sept. 22.

A judge must approve search warrants for the DNA tests. Penalties for welfare fraud can include up to 10 years in prison.

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