Belly up to the ATM, boys — drinks are on the taxpayers.
And maybe lap dances, too.
As a Post investigation has uncovered, welfare recipients are spending their cash benefits at strip clubs and in liquor stores — all part of practices that involve outright fraud that’s enriching both welfare cheats and local bodegas.
Reporter Kate Briquelet reveals today that it all revolves around two kinds of Electronic Benefit Cards (EBTs) issued by the feds to provide food stamps and cash assistance.
They operate like debit cards — recipients swipe them at a participating ATM or grocery checkout and enter their PIN, and the amount is deducted from their balance.
One is a grocery card that provides up to $668 a month for food only; the other pays up to $433 in cash for things like housing, clothing and utilities.
But some of those participating ATMs are located in strip clubs and liquor stores — and though cash transactions can’t be traced, the notion that the dough is spent elsewhere is a bit of a stretch.
But grocery-card transactions can be traced — and some turn out to be real eyepoppers.
As The Post reported last Sunday, a state database of EBT transactions shows multiple sales topping $500 at Bronx and Brooklyn bodegas, where even the most expensive items go for less than $10.
So what’s really going on?
Well, a federal sting last year found that one Canarsie grocer was recording huge phony purchases on EBT cards, giving customers 70 percent in cash and pocketing the rest as a “commission.”
That one scam alone defrauded taxpayers of nearly $1 million over two years.
Last summer, the state Senate passed a bill by Sen. Thomas Libous (R-Binghamton) that would ban welfare spending on liquor, cigarettes, casinos, lottery tickets and adult entertainment.
It would also ban strip clubs and liquor stores from having ATMs that accept EBTs on premises.
But Libous’ bill has been stalled in Speaker Sheldon Silver’s Assembly — with no legislative daylight in sight.
Apart from the obvious fraud implications for taxpayers, there’s an even bigger money issue at stake.
Under a new federal law, states that fail to enact legislation like Libous’ by next year will lose 5% of their welfare funding.
In New York’s case, that’s $120 million a year — no small piece of change.
So Silver needs to agree to move the Libous bill in his house.
And Gov. Cuomo would do well to empanel one of his patented study commissions to get to the bottom of all those curious bodega transactions.
New York has an obligation to the poor — but it doesn’t include buying them drinks in strip clubs.