An educated voice of reason...

Does Maine DHHS understand its approved FNS plan?

By JOHN PAINTER, Community Member, Lewiston — Fri, 11/21/2014 - 15:26

I personally think the least amount of personal information gathered and held by the government is best, regardless of whether a person is wealthy or poor.

Working in human services, I do agree there is food stamp/EBT fraud in Maine (like in all states), and believe strongly in the state pursuing and adjudicating people who misuse the benefit. However, it is very peculiar that Maine chose to pursue photo ID's on the EBT card when there are a range of other ways to identify misuse. Also peculiar is the choice to pursue this path considering FNS rules and our approved state plan.

What is at risk, and I don't think very clear in this report, is that people receiving benefits will remain eligible and receive the benefit, however Maine will lose the ability to claim administrative costs which are in part reimbursed by FNS. This will mean, Maine tax payers will carry 100% of the cost of administration (finding, adjudicating, people who abuse the system, etc), or we won't actually pursue addressing waste, fraud and abuse of this benefit. It's not clear to me that DHHS understands its own FNS approved plan.

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