Audit: N.H. Can’t Track Welfare Cash

No System in Place to Check How Recipients Spend Money

Concord — It’s almost impossible for the state government to track how the cash benefits it provides to welfare recipients are spent, and the goals of those cash assistance programs are defined only broadly by state law, according to a performance audit released Friday.

The report, prepared by the Legislature’s budget and audit office, recommends lawmakers consider setting specific goals for programs that provide cash directly to low-income New Hampshire residents, and then restrict how the money can be spent in order to advance those goals.

More than 13,000 people were receiving cash benefits as of March. In June, the state stopped issuing paper checks, so all benefits are now provided via direct deposit into a bank account or on an Electronic Benefit Transfer, or EBT, card that, like a bank debit card, can be used at stores or to withdraw money from ATMs.

In the first nine months of fiscal 2013, more than $23 million in benefits was spent via EBT cards, and 78 percent of that money was withdrawn as cash from an ATM. That means the state doesn’t have any way to know what people eventually bought with the money, which also is true of money distributed by direct deposit, according to the audit, which was prepared by the nonpartisan legislative budget assistant’s office.

“There’s really no oversight. . . . It seems like a pretty open checkbook,” said Rep. Peter Leishman, D-Peterborough, as the report was presented Friday to the Legislature’s Fiscal Committee.

http://www.vnews.com/news/state/region/8493468-95/audit-nh-cant-track-welfare-cash

And you know what the sad thing is? It is not the only gov. program, state or federal that has no idea where the money is going. These programs are all too big to control.

People are getting rich at  America's expense! And they get away with it!

We ignore that but make sure every bodies business sign doesn't help them too much.

I know. Kind of a sad state, isn't it?

Who the heck is in control?

No one. That is the problem. Ever try to call a big company like AT&T when they were the only one around or Verizon, or Anthem/BCBS? Forget it, you might as well save you breath as to try to talk to them. No one is in charge and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. The gov. is worse.

Good thing most small business's aren't run like that.

fshnski wrote:
"...In the first nine months of fiscal 2013, more than $23 million in benefits was spent via EBT cards, and 78 percent of that money was withdrawn as cash from an ATM..."

How else is a fella going to buy his methamphetamine?

That's a possibility. But I bet most is spent on alcohol, cigarettes and a poor diet..

That's true fsh. That's why I deal with every small business I can. If you can talk with the owner, you are so much better off.

If that isn't the truth and exactly what is happening to our country.