TAX BURDEN:
A man in The Bronx hauls away a barrel — just the sort used to send welfare-bought goods to the
Caribbean.
TAX BURDEN:
A man in The Bronx hauls away a barrel — just the sort used to send welfare-bought goods to the
Caribbean. (
)
A Staten Island lawmaker leading the fight against welfare fraud expressed outrage yesterday over a Post report that revealed that some New Yorkers are using their food-stamp benefits to ship groceries overseas.
“This is a blatant abuse of the welfare system, and it must be stopped,” Democratic Assemblyman Michael Cusick said. “This is an example of why we need legislation to curb abuses made with EBT [electronic benefit transfer] cards.”
Yesterday’s Post exposed how food-stamp recipients routinely scam the taxpayer-funded program by buying food for relatives living in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
The rip-off is apparently so commonplace that giant plastic barrels used to pack up to $2,000 worth of provisions are sold in supermarkets across the Big Apple that cater to Caribbean immigrants.
Cusick was the Assembly sponsor of the Public Assistance Integrity Act, which passed the GOP-led Senate but didn’t clear the Democrat-controlled Assembly before this year’s legislative session ended last month. The proposal would prohibit welfare recipients from using cash assistance to pay for tobacco, alcoholic beverages, lottery tickets or gambling.
None of the city’s Democratic mayoral hopefuls would comment on the food-barrel scandal.
But Republican mayoral contender Joe Lhota called the practice exposed by The Post “absolutely wrong,” saying it “exploits New York’s already overburdened taxpayers.”
Lhota called for an audit of the city’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which is funded by the feds and administered by the city’s Human Resources Administration, “to ensure the program is being implemented properly and not being abused.”
“We have hungry people in this city who rely on public assistance and we must protect SNAP/EBT for those truly in need,” he added.
According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, food-stamp benefits are reserved for people who buy and prepare meals for their households, and states should intervene if anyone does otherwise.
A spokesman for Gov. Cuomo didn’t respond to a request for comment.
A worker at the Associated Supermarket in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, yesterday said, “I don’t think they see it as wrong. To them, it’s just helping family, whether they’re down the hall or in another country.”
Additional reporting by Matt McNulty