Mass. audit finds food stamp aid going to dead

BOSTON, May 29 (UPI) —

An audit has found Massachusetts has paid millions of dollars in food assistance to people who have died or are living out of state, officials say.

State Auditor Suzanne Bump found other abuses of the state’s electronic benefits transfer cards, the Boston Herald reported. They included people using two Social Security numbers to get double benefits and people who withdrew all the available cash in a single day.

The Herald said its own investigation found the state overpaid $27 million to food stamp recipients and then paid another $3.4 million in employee overtime to correct problems.

Almost $2.4 million was paid to people who had been dead for at least six months, the Herald said. Another $120,000 was paid to the accounts of 42 people who only began receiving assistance after death.

Millions of dollars on EBT cards was accessed out of state, including some obtained in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Herald found the three top cities for out-of-state EBT access are popular resorts: Myrtle Beach, N.C., Orlando, Fla., and Las Vegas, Nev.