Do Government Anti-Fraud Programs Make It Too Difficult for the Poor to Receive Assistance?

Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, a national PBS program, asks some important questions in this week's edition:

Are anti-fraud programs making it too difficult for honest, poor people who need assistance to get that assistance? Or are anti-fraud programs necessary to protect tax payers' money?

One person who volunteers with the poor thinks that such anti-fraud programs are "... terrible. I think it’s a way of criminalizing poverty, and it is a way of making people feel ashamed of asking for help."

A county administrator in San Diego, California who runs such an anti-fraud program thinks that such programs: "... provide an integrity component to the public aid that goes out to those people in need, and without that integrity program then there is no way to insure that the monies go out to the people that are actually eligible, deserving, and actually have the need."

Another professor who is an advocate for the poor says: "For us it’s not the issue that you’re checking for fraud. We think that’s a reasonable thing to do, because you've got to protect the public dollar. It’s when you create a program that is, makes it difficult to get the benefit and then doesn’t demonstrate any benefit to the county or the state or the taxpayer. So we’re paying for a program that no one can prove has any impact."

The full report which centers on a controversial and aggressive anti-fraud welfare program in San Diego County California may be viewed or read at:

www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/august-13-2010/cutbacks-and-the-poor/6782/