The Department of Children and Family Services has seen a huge decrease in the number of dead people getting food stamps after implementing a successful new program in partnership with the Department of Health that helps identify recipients who’ve died.

In 2009-2013, 1.3 million dollars in benefits were administrated to the dead, while 2013-2017 only saw 43,599 dollars. Division of Family Support Deputy Assistant Secretary Sammy Guillory says it’s a big improvement.

“It’s hugely important, we focus on being good stewards of taxpayer money, preventing fraud, following federal regulations, and this assists in that goal.”

Over the last four years, 108 of the deceased have received SNAP benefits, down from the 3,938 who received benefits in the four year period ending in June of 2013.

Entitlement fraud involving the dead is a big talking point these days, but Guillory says under the new system, benefits get cut off before someone can steal them and go on a spending spree.

“In these cases it’s usually not fraud, because we get those benefits turned off immediately. Even

The results still aren’t perfect, and Guillory says the few cases they see these days are the result of clerical errors and not bad intentions. He says relative to the huge number of recipients, the rate of error is very low.

“This 108 in a four year period is a very small number percentage wise.”

More From Talk Radio 960 AM