But some recipients sell or trade their cards on the streets or online for money or drugs.
State and federal agencies have vowed to crack down on food stamp fraud by more closely monitoring card replacement requests.
Officials said rule changes to the federal program have made it easier to identify possible criminal actors as well as honest recipients who are having problems managing their accounts.
“Counties are doing a great job of investigating the households that (the state) flags,” said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “That casework has likely contributed to the reduction in replacement cards.”
Food stamp benefits are uploaded monthly on Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, which are similar to debit cards and require users to enter a personal identification number.
Drop in replacements
Ohio issued 327,908 replacement electronic benefit cards in 2013, down 8 percent from 2012, state data show. During that period, participation in the program increased.
In this region, the state issued fewer replacement cards last year in Champaign, Clark, Greene and Preble counties. But more replacement cards were issued to residents in Butler, Miami, Montgomery and Warren counties.
People sometimes lose their cards when they misplace their wallets or purses. Cards also can fall out of people’s pockets during their daily routines. Some cards are stolen during break-ins and other crimes. The plastic cards also can bend, tear and break, rendering them inoperable.
Many recipients of food benefits are members of vulnerable populations, including homeless residents, disabled residents and the elderly, who are more prone to household instability and other issues that can lead to lost, stolen or damaged cards.
“In 90 percent of the cases ODJFS currently flags, county investigators do not find fraudulent activity,” Johnson said.
But law enforcement officials said some cards that are reported lost or stolen actually are traded for quick cash or drugs.
In March, Dayton police arrested a woman on a traffic violation and discovered in her vehicle a food stamp card with a man’s name on it. The woman said her husband bought the card from a friend and paid $50 for $100 worth of food benefits, a police report shows.
In July, Dayton police questioned a burglary suspect who said the $100 he was carrying came from selling his girlfriend’s food stamp card, which contained $243 worth of benefits, a report states. The man said he needed money for heroin.
Last month, someone posted an ad on Craigslist in the Cincinnati area offering $400 worth of food stamps for sale. The seller wanted 75 cents for every $1 in benefits so he or she could supposedly buy Christmas gifts. The newspaper contacted the seller, who never replied but did remove the posting after the inquiry.
The Ohio Investigative Unit probes retailers that are suspected of defrauding or abusing the food stamp program.
Agents often discover that clerks and other store employees who engage in illegal trafficking activities possess food stamp cards that do not belong to them, said Ohio Investigative Unit Cincinnati District Agent-in-Charge Harold Torrens.
“That’s common,” Torrens said. “We’ll find multiple cards at the retailer or home or wherever we do a search warrant.”
Protecting taxpayers
Some retailers are caught trafficking tens of thousands of dollars worth of benefits, and some of these trafficking operations are very sophisticated and organized, he said.
Torrens said trafficking is a financial crime that involves stealing from taxpayers.
“The victims are the taxpayers who are funding this program with taxpayer dollars,” he said.
The newspaper reported in June 2011 that a significant number of food stamp cards were reported stolen, lost or damaged across the region and the state.
The story prompted state Auditor Dave Yost in 2012 to order an evaluation of the state food stamp program. Yost found that since 2006 about 17,000 benefit recipients had been issued 10 or more replacement cards. One person was reissued as many as 75 cards.
Yost’s evaluation concluded that the state had not developed policies and procedures to effectively monitor, identify and combat fraud.
But the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the federal food stamp program, said in 2011 it sent a memo to all states expressing concerns that many households were requesting multiple replacement cards. The agency later announced it planned to alter the program’s rules to better stem fraudulent activities.
In August, the USDA published final and interim final rules that require states to monitor card replacement requests and take action after about four requests. Until the new rules were implemented, states could not to ask for an explanation from benefit recipients when they requested multiple replacement cards or take other corrective measures.
Justifying new card
State agencies can now hold back the fourth replacement card until the recipient contacts the state to justify the need for another card.
Ohio does not hold back the fourth replacement card, but it issues a notice to households that states they have requested an “unusually high” number of cards.
“If you continue to order replacement cards, your local County Department of Job & Family Services will conduct an investigation to ensure that your card is not being used in fraudulent activities,” according to notices issued by the state.
The state decided it is better to send a notice and follow-up because a high number of requests for replacement cards is not always an indication of fraud, Johnson said.
“However, we will continue to monitor replacement cards closely and could alter our approach in the future,” he said.
Some states have decided to send notice letters and they have found that a significant percentage of households no longer continued to request replacement cards after receiving notice, USDA said.
Between 2011 and 2013, there was a 26 percent decline nationwide in households requesting 5 or more cards within a 12-month period, the USDA said.
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