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Ga. taxpayers funding offshore call centers

ATLANTA —
Despite high unemployment in the state, a Channel 2 Action News investigation has uncovered Georgia taxes creating jobs offshore.

As a food stamp consumer, Caprice Johnson considers herself a careful grocery shopper. When Johnson had a question about her funds, she called the toll-free number on her Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program electronic benefit card.

Johnson said she had trouble understanding the man on the other end, and the man on the other end refused to tell her where he was located. Channel 2's Justin Farmer learned that phone call was routed to India.

The state hired J.P. Morgan Chase to handle Georgia’s food stamp program, and Chase uses taxpayer money to hire call center workers. State officials acknowledge that food stamp recipients who speak English are routed to India. Customers who speak Spanish are routed to Mexico.

A Georgia Department of Human Services representative said only 3 percent of calls go offshore, but that’s enough to upset Johnson.

"I think it's wrong to take the jobs away from your own, when you've got people right here that really need it," Johnson said.

In Everetts, N.C., which has a 12 percent unemployment rate, taxpayers used to fund food stamp call centers in India.

"When we started this job, and we trained in this same room here, we had to listen to the phone calls. They let us listen to some phone calls from India. And they were like robots,â€