ebt cards

Politics are interfering with correcting a problem with welfare spending outside of the state.

The Massachusetts Senate has approved a welfare overhaul bill. The bill would revive a 1995 state program designed to help place welfare recipients in full-time work and require the Department of Transitional Assistance to assign specialists to help high-risk recipients...

State welfare officials appear to be doing a better job of rooting out possible food stamp fraud.

A computer failure is to blame for keeping people from using their food stamp cards Saturday. EBT cards were rejected at grocery stores in 17 tates including Massachusetts. The Federal Supplemental Assistance Program issues the payment cards to low-income beneficiaries. ...

Senate leaders are proposing a sweeping overhaul of the state's welfare system that seeks to put more welfare recipients back in the workforce while reducing fraud and waste.  Under the bill outlined on Monday, able-bodied people would be required to seek work _ first on their own and later with the help of state-sponsored job training programs _ before they can collect benefits...

An audit of the state's welfare agency has identified millions of dollars in questionable payments to people who were dead or otherwise ineligible for benefits, along with missed opportunities to detect potential fraud.

The Associated Press ran a story yesterday that caught my eye,   A Massachusetts baker is refusing to sell her sweets to customers who want to use their welfare benefit cards, the EBT cards. Andrea Taber sells whoopie pies at a farmers market in Braintree, but she doesn't think the welfare recipients should be able to buy her goodies. Bac...