According to an analysis of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Maine welfare cash has been spent in every other state in the Union, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Department of Health and Human Services records related to TANF, a program intended to provide cash assistance to low-income families, was obtained by The Maine Wire pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request. The data includes three years’ worth of transactions involving Maine Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, the debit cards that carry benefits for multiple welfare programs.
According to DHHS records, cash welfare users from Maine have spent $2.8 million outside of the state over the last three years – and not just in neighboring New Hampshire.
[RELATED: Maine welfare cash spent at liquor stores, bars, strip clubs and smoke shops…]
According to HHS records, the top recipients of Maine’s welfare cash are: New Hampshire: $1.4 million; Massachusetts: $360,000; Florida: $206,000; and New York: $100,000.
Measured by transactions, Maine EBT cards have been used 11,328 times in New Hampshire over the past three years. EBT cards have been used 2,918 times in Massachusetts and 1,252 times in Florida during the same period.
Neither Maine nor the federal government places restrictions on the geographical use of TANF welfare cash.
There are possible reasons a household may be using benefits in another state legitimately. It may be more convenient or cost effective to shop in a bordering state; military families receiving benefits in Maine might be transferred to another state; natural disasters, domestic violence, or divorce, may displace people, making it necessary to seek shelter with out-of-state family members or friends; or families may move to find employment.
Although using welfare cash outside of Maine is currently legal, only residents can apply for and receive benefits. In cases where welfare recipients use their benefits outside the state of Maine for an extended period of time, it may be the case that that individual no longer resides in the state and may be improperly receiving benefits. The state does not currently have any formal mechanism in place to identify such recipients and terminate their benefits.
[RELATED: Robinson talks welfare abuse with Howie Carr…]
Republican Gov. Paul R. LePage has introduced legislation that would place certain geographic restrictions on the use of EBT cards.
Speaker of the House Mark W. Eves (D-North Berwick) has indicated a willingness to consider placing some restrictions on EBT card use, but progressive advocacy groups have said such restrictions are an unnecessary hassle for poor.
Analysis of Out-of-State Welfare Spending
The Maine Wire’s analysis of out-of-state TANF transactions reveals use patterns suggesting that, in many instances, welfare cash is used in ways not likely to achieve the program’s goal of encouraging a return to the work force.
For example, on Aug. 1, 2011, one or more EBT cards were used within a three-minute timeframe to access nearly $500 in welfare cash at an ATM in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. That particular ATM happens to be located almost on top of the campus of Disney World Resorts.
On March 1, 2011, at 3:20AM, a Maine EBT cardholder accessed an ATM in Cape Canaveral, Florida, twice, withdrawing $400. The address of the ATM corresponds with Ron Jon Cape Caribe Resort.
Additional Sunshine State transactions occur at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando, the Family Fun Center of Lakeland, and at North Miami Beach, Miami Beach, Vero Beach, Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach – all hotspots for Mainers on vacation.
Spending data from other states also suggests that cash welfare is being used to supplement a vacationing family’s budget. Welfare cash recipients have, for example, spent $3,437 in Las Vegas. And, as recently as October, Maine welfare cash was withdrawn from the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad, Calif.
Maine welfare cash has also found its way as far as Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Isles.
According to the data, four transactions occurred in Hawaii in 2011 and 2012, including $300 ATM withdrawals in Waipahu, Wahiawa, and a $140 withdrawal in Honolulu.
In Puerto Rico, Maine EBT cards have been used to access more than $3,400 in welfare cash, in the cities of San Lorenzo, Vieques, and Bayamon.
Welfare cash has also been spent in the Virgin Islands city of St. John, at the Mongoose Junction shopping center.
Although no one can know for sure how much of this cash has been spent or obtained illegally, the volume of cash flowing to popular vacation destinations suggests an abuse of the program. At the minimum, out-of-state spending in places like Florida, Hawaii, California and Las Vegas suggest some cash welfare recipients are not using their taxpayer-funded benefits to help return to work.
This is story is the first in a series analyzing Maine’s TANF program.
News reporting isn’t supposed to be writing an article with scintillating and suggestive facts and then making up a conclusion so that the story comes out the way you want your readers to to respond.
The problem with Mr. Robinson’s conclusion is that it is, by his own admission, it’s pure speculation. Recipients of TANF are entitled to use them throughout the country, and there are no restrictions upon whether they are visiting a sick relative, struggling to take their kids on a vacation or simply spending a few days where it’s warm.
Robinson’s musings about how they got there or what the circumstances were is conjecture fueled by a sense of self-righteous indignation. It’s not a news story.
Thank-you for this; you have a new fan!
This infuriates me. I see blatant misuse of welfare every day at work. Assistance has it’s place in society but abuse and misuse need to STOP.
Not to mention there seems to be a large number of peeps on welfare that smoke pot daily. They readily admit it on the paper work I use to see. Sitting home smoking on your tab!!!
I wouldn’t blame anyone for going to the Portsmouth Demoulas, but anything further seems like a problem to me.
I also see misuse of the Welfare almost every day myself. How can they be looking for work if they are out of state. I see people who are scheduled for a medical procedure and the put it on hold because they are going to Florida for a few weeks and wouldn’t you know they are also on Mainecare!
I wonder how much of this cash welfare gets shipped overseas? My guess is a lot.
Of course they go to New Hampshire, they’re poor not stupid, they don’t want to pay the higher sales taxes any more than you or I do, more for their money. This is a small potatoes number compared to the real number of dollars Mainers within 40 miles of New Hampshire spend in that sales tax free states. quod erat demonstrandum, raise, expand or otherwise make the sales tax in Maine higher, all you do is give more people in Maine incentive to go to New Hampshire. this is a fact that the geniuses in Maine State Government refuse to see. Sales Tax Cognitive Dissonance. Same deal with the new internet tax we’re suffering under, does the same damn thing. #taxfoolishness
Allowing this money to be spent outside of Maine further hurts Maine businesses.
This has been going on for years and is getting worse the sad part is a lot of people who really need the help are not getting it, they don’t know how to beat the system
Don’t corporations call these junkets “write-offs” and charge them to the american taxpayer?
The abuse of Taxpayers will continue until a Convention of States promulgates Constitutional Amendments like the LIBERTY AMENDMENTS for ratification by the People .
Sadly , LePage & Co. seem to have little more interest in reining in the DC thugs than do the Alfond & Co. Statists/Socialists posing as Democrats !
Get rid of the cards and go back to food stamps. Political correctness be damned.
Food for thought (pun intended)
What are the options for eliminating the fraud?
For each option will the cost of eliminating the fraud result in a net savings?
Does the cost of eliminating fraud include the time spent by government officials?
What work does not get done by government officials working on the fraud issue and what is that cost?
Will the correction of the fraud issue affect those not fraudulent in their use of the EBT? Has this been factored into the net savings?
I do not deny there is fraud; where there is money there is greed – we see that every day in the private sector and in the public sector. However, the governor and the MaineWire have not clearly defined fraud as evidenced by a number of comments to this article. Without clear definition of what is fraud in this case and with that its cost, evaluation of corrective measures cannot begin.
Is the timing of this report part of the governor’s campaign strategy? Will he drag this along until November in order to show how he is addressing Maine’s financial challenges? I would prefer he demonstrate how he will create jobs without destroying the environment.
Is this another avenue to encourage drug-testing of all welfare recipients? If so will that cost be included in the options for addressing fraud? What have been the results of drug testing in other states, cost versus benefit? I will gladly support any type of drug testing on citizens providing it is also performed on all public sector employees. They are paid from the same pool of taxpayer money as the EBT.
The headline, the picture, the over-arching generalities, and cherry-picked data points of this article are Sensationalism 101. They are intended to get the emotional blood flowing, but not the brain. This is an insult to the intellect of all Mainers.
The benefit cards are often sold for cash to use for drugs, alcohol, and other substances supposedly not permitted, so remote out of state use could indicate that such a sale has occurred. I believe the cards are advertised on some websites, so remote sales are probably pretty easy. Requiring a photo id every time these cards are used could be helpful.
This is disgusting, but as a mental health professional I see it everyday. What is worse: spending welfare dollars out of the state or the state giving TANIF, food stamps, MaineCare, free rides and free rent to people who abuse their kids and are “trying” to get them back? How are we making people responsible for themselves??
If you are getting free money from the government that you have not earned, their should be restrictions on what you can buy. Alcohol, cigarettes, drugs vacations these are all luxuries they have not earned. We as a society need to let our voices be heard and let our government know that this crap is not going to be tolerated any more.
I understand the frustration however the article is lacking. Who is to say that welfare recipients do not have well to do parents? Maybe mom and dad are picking up the lions share of the Disney tab? Perhaps they have a crappy job that allows them legitimate access to assistance and they choose to take a $79 greyhound to Florida? The republican narrative of, “Poor me I work all day while the welfare recipients live it up in Vegas and Disney World” is classic class warfare. Does abuse happen? Certainly. Is it wide spread and aggravated as the article suggests? Probably not.
Raise your kids right and this wouldn’t be an issue. Just Saying!
How is it a vacation? Taking a break from doing nothing? Just curious, and will be called insensitive I know I work full time and can’t afford the money or time for such travel with my family
If there was regulations in place from the start along with an effective communication and monitoring system, the welfare system may have been more effective.
Wonderful work, MaineWire and Steve Robinson. Suggest folks consider cancelling the Sussman-Pingree-Kesich fish-wrap and sending some of the savings to the people doing the real work of the Fourth Estate. As for the welfare system, let’s return to voluntary exchanges between God’s people, not exchanges dictated by the likes of Obama, Pelosi, and Pingree. The economy will get a lot healthier for everyone once the bureaucrats that redistribute our earnings and administer the handouts get real jobs.
I see the Maine Wire is recycling stories. Figured you all would be philosophically opposed to that…
the way welfare works you get so much in food stamps and there are restrictions on what you can buy you can not buy any food that is cooked like cheese stakes ect.dog or cat food ect.only food that you cook you can buy hoggies fruis vegetables and such then you get you cash assistance in which you withdrawal from an atm and depending on how many people you have on your case determines how much you get now if a man or women with one child gets welfare they only get 348 in food stamps which can not be withdrawing from an atm when you go food shopping if you spend 130 in food stamps that 130 gets deducted from the 348 that they receive and they have to make it last for a whole month then they also get 158 in cash twice a month which makes it 316 dollars so al they get is 316 in cash for the month and 348 in food stamps now if you have 1 man or women with two kids you get a little moe in cash and food stamps and so on and they dont get it for nothing they are sent to earn center and are made to look for work and
at earn center that people on welfare have to go to they are placed in the program and and have to find a job after they are in program if they dont find a job in the first 30 days then they have to do community service if they dont find a job after being in the program after 6 months they get put out of the program sent back to welfare office to start all over again but have to prove they were terminated for the program with good cause if not they lose cash befits for 30 days if it happens a second time they lose befits for 60 days if it happens a third time they and everyone on their case lose their befits for life and can never get it again and it doesn’t matter if they move to another state and try to get it their they wonget it
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