- Texas hit with fine for food stamp errors, By Corrie MacLaggan, June 28, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Federal officials have fined Texas $3.96 million for errors in issuing food stamp benefits, according to a letter to House Speaker Joe Straus. The penalty is for a high rate of overpayments or underpayments two years in a row, said the letter from U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon. Among the four states hit with penalties, Texas was fined the most. Also fined were Indiana ($1.2 million), Maryland ($742,238) and Iowa ($205,730), federal officials said. Texas plans to appeal, said Geoff Wool, a spokesman for the state Health and Human Services Commission. He said the commission learned of the fine on Friday. Wool said Texas’ appeal will focus on the fact that the number of food stamp recipients in Texas spiked after Hurricane Ike in 2008, increasing 26 percent in the year that followed…”
- U.S. fines Texas $4 million for botching food-stamp claims, By Robert t. Garrett, June 29, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Federal food stamp officials have fined Texas nearly $4 million for making too many errors in calculating people’s monthly benefits. U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon notified state officials late last week, offering to waive half of the $3.96 million fine if Texas would use the money to improve administration of the program. But Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokesman Geoff Wool said Monday that the state will appeal. A penalty is unfair because hurricanes and the recession overwhelmed the state workers who process food stamp requests, Wool said. Texas either overpaid or underpaid on food stamp benefits 6.9 percent of the time in fiscal 2009, according to the federal Food and Nutrition Service. In Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, the most error-prone regions, the state miscalculated benefits more than 10 percent of the time. Among all states, only Indiana and Maryland performed more poorly. Both had payment error rates of just over 7.1 percent last year, while the national rate was 4.36 percent, ‘the lowest rate in the history of the program,’ the service proclaimed…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty