This came to my attention at a meeting for persons seeking welfare because of todays high food prices.  Anyone applying for Welfare are now being fingerprinted to make sure no one is committing welfare fraud.  Not sure if all the states have this yet. The person who invented the digital finger print system says it has saved. 5.4 million dollars finding those cheating the government. There are employees stealing from DPSS and have been jailed. Have any of you heard of this?

I hadn't heard of it but it is a good idea. I know there are those who think this is an invasion of privacy, but it is extremely necessary to weed out the fraud and the criminals. Our country is filled with cheats and liars, and the rest of us are going broke supporting them. Anything that stops the fraud I'm all for.  Edey

California ahs been finger-printing for a long time, long before I joined the Food Stamps program.  It's a very good idea, but crooks can still get around it by sending someone else in to the office with false ID ....  Yours in Him, Deb

I am not on welfare, but the fingerprinting thing gives me the creeps. I would rather have our country filled with cheats and liars and everyone have the basic freedom from surveillance intact, than continue to sell our civil liberties down the river in the name of frugality.

I think the welfare system is something today it was never intended to be, to everyone's detriment, and I have personally seen hideous abuses of it (knew a kid who got the state  to pay for an $800 leather jacket for him because he was depressed and had low self esteem and couldn't interview for a job unless he had that snazzy leather jacket, and THEY DID!). It was supposed to be a stopgap emergency measure, based on the idea that people want to fend for themselves if they have the chance, not a way of life that is passed from one generation to the next. In my state, my husband and I have found that we actually have less disposable income since he got a good-paying job and doubled our income, from when he was making half as much, and we were scraping by but yet qualified for heating assistance, WIC, and food stamps. So in our state, it actually doesn't pay to make more, unless perhaps you are making a tremendous amount and then get rich-folks' tax breaks, but not sure if that's so much the case here as it would be in more Republican places.  So I guess you could say that here as in much of America, it doesn't pay to be "middle class"... you had better be rich or else poor enough to get welfare. We decry Reaganomics and what it did to this country. Worst thing ever, and if we were rich, I would not wish to enjoy less tax burden than people making ordinary incomes. I would prefer to pay my share like everyone else and have less social and economic disparity and a healthier nation.

crunchymamamaine every word you have said is true.  I put this up to see what people would think since it came out in the Times newspaper.  Did you know that even welfare employees steal money from social services? The point I wanted to make is that more and more of our rights are being taken away.  You are definetly right about the hideous abuses and yet these people get away with it. Yet others suffer who are trying to survive.

Prisoners who have committed crimes and get out of jail get Rehabilitated full financial aid for college, food stamps, medical, housing and even jobs.  How can that be? Why would the government do such a thing when 9 times out of 10 they go right back to jail because they have committed yet another crime.

This is nothing more then getting people ready to have the microchip put in on them. People will say that this is a ridiculous statement but it has been already done to Alzheimers patients. We are already moving towards a cashless society today.  I remember when people told me that I was crazy because I said the gas would go to 5.00 and up.  I wonder do they still feel the same?

Peace,

Justice

Deb there is always someone smart enough to fool the system.  You have seen stories of hackers getting into places they are not supposed to be in. What people have a hard time seeing is employees themselves sell information.  That is one reason we have so much identity theft today.

Peace,

Justice

I have to agree. I'd rather starve than let the government fingerprint and keep track of me.  They can spy on me enough as is thanks to certain laws that have been enacted in the last 7 1/2 years.

We don't qualify anyway, because we don't have any credit cards or car payments (yes, that's right), even though we struggle quite a bit.  We'd have to take on a debt load in order to get any type of assitance.

My opinion: Your getting tracked anyway if you are using Social Services... what difference does a fingerprint make?

Luvd_Lioness:

what difference does a fingerprint make?

It makes a difference because I don't have a guarantee that they won't use the fingerprint for something other than social service benefits. I don't trust the gov't as far as I can throw them.  I don't engage in illegal activities, but the less they know about me the better, imho.

It's sad that for every good bit of knowledge we acquire, there is an evil use for it.  The government already knows me because I used to work as a civilian on an Air Force Base here.  Interestingly enough, when I had my ID card made, they put it under my maiden name instead of my married name because my father had been stationed on that same base 20 some years ago. My brother and uncle also worked there at the same time I did - Must be a family tradition, lol.

I like the idea of prosecuting welfare fraud - I'm so discouraged by the stories I hear about people getting huge amounts of money or frivolous things with money they are supposed to be using to feed their families.

I agree that the welfare system has morphed into something that was never intended.  They still (in my state, anyway) have the slogan "A hand up, not a hand out", but if a woman is on welfare and and goes to get a job (generally a low-paying job) the welfare stops completely, which puts them back into a hopeless position - not enough money to support their families to begin with and now they have to deal with child care because they are working outside the home.

I'm not sure how the fingerprinting works to prevent the fraud, but if that is the method available, it's the one that must be used.  We can't just stand by and let the fraud continue.