Audit Reveals Welfare for the Dead in Massachusetts
$18 million handed out in "questionable" benefits over the last few years to more than 1,000 recipients using social security numbers of dead people
A state audit today found Massachusetts has handed out $18 million in "questionable public assistance benefits" over the past few years, including welfare to more than 1,160 people who were either dead or using a deceased person's Social Security number.
The report, which covered food stamps, cash, and other benefits to low-income families, estimated that recipients using a dead person's Social Security number alone received at least $2.4 million in between July 2010 and April 2012. It also flagged another $15 million in suspicious transactions from electronic benefit cards during the two-and-a-half-year period the auditor reviewed.