A watchdog group outlined evidence that state officials are misusing food stamp exemptions to hide accounting errors.
These exemptions, also known as discretionary exemptions, allow states to excuse able-bodied adults from work obligations without requiring any justification.
According to the report, these exemptions are widely used by states, with little to no accountability. Approximately two-thirds of states employ these exemptions, presenting ample opportunities for abuse. Moreover, these exemptions can be carried over from year to year if unused, further exacerbating the potential for abuse.
One of the concerning practices identified in the report is the retroactive issuance of no-good-cause exemptions. The report’s author points to the potential for abuse within this pattern of events because officials are potentially able to use these exemptions after the fact to cover up errors and avoid penalties from the federal government.
By retroactively exempting individuals from work requirements, states can also artificially lower their error rates, undermining the integrity of the program.
The report highlights instances where states have openly admitted to engaging in this practice, referring to it as “overissuance/error protection.”
The report’s author, Hayden Dublois, who serves as the Data and Analytics Director at FGA, asserts that this practice is not only deceptive but also undermines the accountability measures put in place to ensure the proper administration of these programs.
“Instead of cleaning up their food stamp rolls, state bureaucrats are sweeping their errors under the rug,” Mr. Dublois said in a statement to The Epoch Times. “The federal rule they’re using keeps thousands of ineligible recipients on welfare, using resources meant for the truly needy.
“State bureaucrats continue to abuse this federal rule as ‘error protection’ to cover up their sloppy work and avoid any accountability,” added Mr. Dublois. “And they’re doing it in plain sight.”
In some states, the report reveals that up to 100 percent of no-good-cause exemptions are issued retroactively, further underscoring the widespread nature of this problem. This not only calls into question the accuracy of reported error rates but also serves to erode public trust in the integrity of the program.
FGA submitted requests for public records to nearly 20 states that have been identified as having utilized no-good-cause exemptions. Although numerous states declined to furnish records, the limited number of states that did provide responsive materials paint an alarming picture.
The group noted Kansas, Maine, and Rhode Island as three states that have applied 100 percent of their no-good-cause exemptions retroactively. Also worth noting was Pennsylvania, which applied 78 percent retroactively, and New York was found to have used 14 percent in the same way.
Over a period of five years, from 2016 to 2020, the group estimates that approximately 100,000 retroactive no-good-cause exemptions were issued in these five states alone. Bureaucrats in these states could be concealing the true magnitude of their errors by covering up mistakes.
As the report’s author noted, these exemptions place “downward pressure” on food stamp error rates, reducing the reliability of the figures as an indicator of actual program errors because it allows states to manipulate data post-execution utilizing these exemptions.
“This is trickle-down program abuse: The Biden administration unilaterally increases food stamp spending, state bureaucrats exploit this federal rule, and ineligible food stamp recipients exploit the lack of program integrity. It’s taxpayers and the truly needy who lose under the current system. Congress can, and should, end the abuse of no-good-cause exemptions,” said Mr. Dublois.
FGA’s report calls for Congress to ban the use of the “troublesome exemptions,” noting that an element of the debt ceiling agreement reached in 2023, saw Congress decrease from 12 percent to 8 percent the proportion of no-good-cause-exemptions that a state may apply to its able-bodied population without dependents in a given year.
This came from data collected in just 13 U.S. states; the figure for all 50 states is “likely in the hundreds of thousands,” according to a government watchdog.
The lapse in enforcement appeared to have been a result of a combination of state negligence and federal loopholes, allowing substantial lottery winners to continue to receive nutritional assistance in the 13 states for which the FOIA requests yielded survey data.
The Epoch Times has reached out to multiple states from the Feb. 9 report for comment.
