A MOM had her SNAP benefits ripped away from her after she was wrongly accused of fraud by the state.
The American lost her food assistance in 2020 in Kentucky, in a move that a judge dubbed as “draconian”.
A Kentucky women sued the state for wrongly kicking her off of her SNAP benefits[/caption]
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program has undergone a series of changes recently.
An overhaul banned recipients from spending SNAP money on certain junk foods.
In Kentucky, the SNAP recipient was found to be making suspicious same-day purchases from a store and allegedly tried to overdraw her account.
She also entered an invalid PIN and sometimes made “whole-dollar” purchases that were unlikely during a grocery run.
It turned out that the woman actually worked at the store and usually bought items from there multiple times a day for lunch and for her kids.
She also revealed that her child sometimes used her card, which could account for the incorrect PIN.
Franklin County Judge Thomas Wingate, when faced with the case in 2023, was baffled that it had even made it to court.
He said: “It is draconian to take away SNAP benefits from a single mother without clear and convincing evidence that intentional trafficking was occurring during a time when food scarcity is so prevalent.”
The SNAP user ultimately won her case when she sued the state of Kentucky for kicking her off the program.
NOT THE FIRST TIME
This isn’t the only time that the state of Kentucky has done this in recent memory.
Over the past five years, Kentucky has brought several fraud charges to court based on transactional data.
In most of these instances, the ultimate goal was to take that person off of their SNAP benefits.
Kentucky is so aggressive in this practice of disqualifying people from SNAP that its second in the nation for per capita administrative disqualifications.
According to federal data from 2023, it is second behind the state of Florida.
What are SNAP benefits?
Over 41 million people in America receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits each month.
SNAP provides food benefits to low-income households to help people get groceries.
Recipients get money on a debit card that can be used at grocery stores and farmers markets.
The amount of money distributed depends on several factors including how much money you make, how much money you receive from other benefits, and how many people are in your household.
The electronic benefits can help people buy food including food and vegetables, meat, fish, dairy products, breads, cereals, and snacks.
You can’t use SNAP to buy alcohol, cigarettes, hot foods, or cooking utensils.
Source: USDA
In the last decade, SNAP disqualifications rose from fewer than 100 in 2015 to more than 1,800 in 2023, according to reporting from the outlet Fortune.
More than 300 people have been accused of selling or misusing their benefits since January 2024, according to Kentucky Public Radio.
THAT’S AN ORDER
The problem got so bad that another judge in Franklin County in 2023 ordered the state government to stop disqualifying people from SNAP based solely on transactional data.
Since that decision, at least three lawsuits have suggested that the government continued to bring in such cases.
University of Kentucky law professor Cory Dodds went as far as to state that he didn’t believe the government had substantial proof to bring these cases.
He said: “I’m not saying that folks didn’t do it, didn’t commit the fraud, but I don’t think the cabinet in a lot of these cases has met their burden of proof, either.”
ALLEGED SUSPICIONS
Typically, suspects receive a notice in the mail, which ask them to voluntarily waive their right to a hearing and accept the punishment.
A first offense normally results in a one-year SNAP ban, and an order to pay back the full amount the state claims they misused.
Records have revealed the amount of money that these cases are typically fought over.
They show that since 2022, more than 900 people have been kicked off of SNAP benefits for “trafficking” or misuse for less than $1,000.
The lowest amount alleged has been 14 cents.
Franklin County Judge Thomas Wingate, when faced with the case in 2023, was baffled why it had even made it to court[/caption]
