Mass. can't find thousands of missing welfare recipients, Gov. Patrick reacts

[Rockntractor]

(FOX25 / MyFoxBoston) Sharman Sacchetti
BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) – Governor Deval Patrick is downplaying the Department of Transitional Assistance admission that it could not locate 19,000 people who have either been receiving welfare benefits or have applied for them, saying the number represents a "broader class of people than those who are actually on the rolls today."

>>Wrong addresses found for welfare recipients: Rep. Shaunna O'Connell reacts
At a news conference, the Governor kept referring to the number of people whose addresses could not be located as just "four percent" of the mailings.

Read more: http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/20501831/2013/01/04/herald-mass-cant-find-19000-missing-welfare-recipients#ixzz2HAKRBJO9



During the senate campaign, then Senator Scott Brown criticized the state, arguing the mass mailing was a plan to push more democratic voters to the polls.



Why would they need to push more Democrat voters to the polls, don't they just adjust the numbers to where they need them after the vote now days?

[Starbuck]

Heh, heh..... "Department of Transitional Assistance". Now that's cute. Only a bureaucrat could come up with something like that.

[noonwitch]

Homeless people, or drug addicts who live with people they don't trust, will frequently receive their mail at someone else's address, like a brother, sister, parent, whatever.

[NJCardFan]

Heh, heh..... "Department of Transitional Assistance". Now that's cute. Only a bureaucrat could come up with something like that.

Sort of like "Office of the President Elect". Oh, and this is my surprised look:

http://t1.ftcdn.net/jpg/00/21/60/72/400_F_21607245_J73juBnY97kQkFSrn4BulFQcPTimVD6e.jp g

[Eupher]

A lot of those recipients are dead.

[noonwitch]

A lot of those recipients are dead.


I would agree with you, except that usually the people on welfare who die have their burial costs paid by the same welfare program. The computer system will not allow benefits to go to a person whose funeral was paid for with funds from the same system, unless there is a mistake made on this end about birthdates/social security numbers and as the computer systems get better every 5-10 years or so, this is even less likely. The one way it would happen is if a relative pays for someone's funeral. The welfare caskets are made of pressboard, and this is offensive to some people who want their loved ones buried in a nice, wooden casket.


It's the feds who send SSI/SS benefits long after a person dies. When the new nationwide system gets up and running in the next few years, the state and fed computer systems will share more information and even that will become less likely.
EBT cards are used fraudulently to buy alcohol-I've seen people doing it at the store. The states need to tell stores if they don't get something in their computerized registers that prevents this, they will not allow EBT cards to be used in their stores. If a store can program their registers to not sell alcohol or cigarettes to a customer without putting in a legal birthdate, they can prevent alcohol sales being made on EBT cards.

[Odysseus]

I'll bet that they had no trouble finding them before the election.

[Rockntractor]

I'll bet that they had no trouble finding them before the election.

I'm curious what the raw results of the election were, that is before the vote redistribution was applied.