The percentage of Americans selling their food stamps back to stores for cash has increased by 30 percent over the past several years, according to a new Agriculture Department study.
According to FOX News, the study on food stamps trafficking compared the periods of 2006 to 2008 and 2009 to 2011. The total amount of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs (SNAP) benefits is now at roughly $858 million, compared to $330 million annually in the 2006-2008 period.
Trafficking has declined since the 1990s, when the rate was nearly 4 percent of food stamps. The increase reflects the overall growth in SNAP participation and benefits, the agency said in the August 2013 report, Fox News reported.
According to the agency, food stamp recipients typically sell back their benefits at a discount. The agency said its undercover investigations and research into electronic SNAP transactions focused on stores showed "suspicious activities."
FOX News reported trafficking doesn't directly increase costs for the federal government. Based on the study, about 10.5 percent of all authorized SNAP stores are engaged in trafficking; up from 8.2 percent in the 2006-2008 review. The study also found the likelihood of trafficking varied by store characteristics and settings such as stores that are publicly owned.
Small grocery or convenience stores, for example, accounted for about 15 percent of all redemptions, but 85 percent of trafficking redemptions, Fox News reported. However, the numbers were later adjusted to reflect activity within the entire program.
Nearly half a million people who receive food stamps but still do not get enough to eat will lose out on the program, due to proposed cuts, according to the New York Times. Congress is proposing an additional 160,000 to 305,000 food stamp recipients lose their eligibility to be in the SNAP program.
According to a new report 5.4 million people would be eliminated from the program.
In New York, food stamps recipients are using welfare funds to ship food to relatives in Caribbean countries. Jamaica, Dominican Republic and Haiti are enjoying groceries from food stamps of relatives living in the United States, according to the New York Post. The article reported welfare recipients are using taxpayers funded benefits to buy groceries and package them in giant barrels and ship them overseas.
