United Council on Welfare Fraud on LinkedIn: UCOWF Newsletter - June 2024 (2024)

We are the United Council on Welfare Fraud.The United Council on Welfare Fraud [UCOWF] is the only national membership association dedicated to defending against the erosion of integrity in public assistance programs – equipping members across the industry with crucial resources for collaboration, professional development, and advocacy.Collaboration: We connect members to a nationwide network of shared support.Professional Development: We provide professional development opportunities through annual conferences and a respected certification program.Advocacy: We empower our members with effective messaging for informing policymakers, including relevant data and factual accounts of welfare fraud to shine a light on its wide-ranging impact.UCOWF spans industries, with a membership comprised of dedicated professionals who play crucial roles in fraud prevention and identification, the recovery of fraudulently-obtained taxpayer dollars, and strengthening the integrity of our nation's public assistance programs.If that’s your line of work, let’s get talking — that’s why we’re here.The United Council on Welfare Fraud. United for Integrity.#UnitedForIntegrity #LetsGetTalking #UCOWF

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Great work by Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio's team uncovering $2M in #PublicAssistanceFraud in just three months from #SNAP and #Medicaid recipients. #FarmBill #USDA #CMS #FraudWasteAbuse #welfarefraud #ProgramIntegrity House Agriculture Committee https://lnkd.in/e7cZZicQ

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At last year's #UCOWF 50th Annual Conference, members heard information about how easily #welfare #recipients can commit first-person #eligibility fraud using websites that create fake documents - a very simple #RecipientFraud scheme as nearly all state agencies do not check for document authentication to ensure it has not been photoshopped, edited, modified, etc. Enter #ArtificialIntelligence in one of those "hold my beer" moments.This article discusses how improvements in #GenerativeAI have made it even easier... just enter the information you want and it creates an AI-generated document with that data. This is yet ANOTHER example of why applicant/recipient #SelfAttestation (aka client-certification) opens the door to #FraudWasteAbuse of all #safetynetprograms that issue #GovernmentBenefits. To combat this form of first and third party fraud, data verifications and document authenticity must be used by agencies issuing benefits (such as #UnemploymentInsurance, #SNAP, #TANF, #ChildCare, #Medicaid, #LIHEAP, #EarlyLearning, #SocialSecurity). Educate yourselves and your agency administrators.https://lnkd.in/eFszq-PU

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BREAKING NEWS: Stacy Dean, Deputy Undersecretary for USDA Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services is leaving her post to pursue new adventures. While #UCOWF has not always seen eye-to-eye with Ms Dean, we wish her well on her new opportunity. Cindy Long, FNS' current Administrator over such critical safety-net programs as #SNAP (fka/ food stamps) will fill the post for the interim, with Assistant Administrator Dr Tameka (Jobe) Owens, PhD, PMP moving up to fill Ms. Long's responsibilities.

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This. All of this. Dr Haskins comments are right on point. #fraudwasteabuse #ebtskimming #accounttakeover #snap #farmbill #reformSNAP

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Hear directly from some of the best public assistance welfare investigators in the country talk about SNAP fraud in this highlight reel filmed at last year's 50th National Training Conference. Real Fraud Fighters!#SNAP #welfarefraud #farmbill #fraudwasteabuse #UCOWF Foundation for Government Accountability #programintegrity #frauddetection #fraudprevention #protecttheprogram #feedtheneedynotthegreedy #NoWelfareForTheWealthy

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#𝐈𝐂𝐘𝐌𝐈: The United Council on Welfare Fraud has posted #programintegrity initiatives needed in this year's #FarmBill. [Link posted in comments.] One of the initiatives addressed the massive #fraudwasteabuse perpetuated by 𝐵𝑟𝑜𝑎𝑑-𝐵𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑑 𝐶𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝐸𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 (#BBCE).Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA, and Related Agencies held a hearing on #SNAP (fka "food stamps") in which Representative Ben Cline (R-VA) addressed the issue in a question to a panel member:𝐑𝐄𝐏 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄: We've also got a situation where more than 5.4 million recipients of food stamps do not meet federal eligibility, eligibility criteria, income level criteria. They've been enrolled through a broad-based categorical eligibility loophole and have incomes and assets above the federal limits.What is the purpose of federal eligibility standards and asset tests? And if we close this BBCE loophole, which I have a bill that would do just that, who would lose benefits given the eligibility is already established under federal guidelines? [𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: 𝑅𝑒𝑝 𝐶𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐻𝑅4154, "𝑁𝑜 𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑓𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ𝑦"]𝐃𝐑 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐀 𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐃𝐈: If you were to close the loophole, people that have very high assets would lose benefits and that's not the target population of the [SNAP] program. And also, those who are above the income eligibility criteria, which is 130 percent of poverty, uh, they would also lose eligibility.https://lnkd.in/e5htZRGj House Appropriations Committee Angela Rachidi Darby McQueen-Dever House Committee on Appropriations #NoWelfareForTheWealthy #assetverification Graydon Daubert #BBCEloophole #fraudwasteabuse #welfarereform #SNAPnutrition #HR4154

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Child Daycare and Early Learning programs often have fraud overlapping into other government assistance programs. In this #DOJ press release, a #Missouri daycare owner was sentenced after committing (at least) $772,000 in fraud. In her fraud scheme, Patricia Johnson-Rushing also committed #SNAP (#foodstamp) fraud, receiving over $36,000.Wherever a local/state/federal agency provides benefits or payments, THERE WILL BE FRAUD. Pay and Chase does not work, and some basic anti-fraud measures could have eliminated or significantly limited the losses in this case.UCOWF reminds members on several best practices to combat these schemes:1) Data sharing between daycare/early learning and food assistance agencies.2) Daycare and Early Learning subsidies are designed for low income recipients. Discrepancies where the D/EL application shows income and the SNAP shows unemployed are red flags for fraud that can be easily verified/refuted. Prior State data sharing has found the vast majority of D/EL households are receiving SNAP... and that the vast majority contain clear discrepancies. In this case, Johnson-Rushing (falsely) declared a (fictitious) job and (fake) income (also not verified).3) Other missed signs from the case and court documents: No asset testing for Johnson-Rushing's personal SNAP applications - which would have disclosed undeclared bank accounts and a new Cadillac Escalade. No income or employment verification was done - 4 straight years of unemployment while incurring expenses! She also lied about ownership of the business (not checked) so Daycare benefits would pay for her six adopted children.https://lnkd.in/eTt8yxCU#fraudwasteabuse #HHS #IRS #fraudwasteabuse #frontendfraudprevention #welfarefraud #trustbutverify

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