Ways to fight against Welfare Fraud
Joshua Eyler
Eng/147
July 27, 2015
Elsie Walker

Due to the overwhelming amount of welfare fraud that goes on across the United States,
I’d like to share a few ways to help diminish this kind of fraud. Welfare fraud on any scale is wrong and something needs to be done about it being reduced. Some states have already put into affect mandatory drug testing, with other states to follow. This should help sift through the people who are breaking the law for one, and quite possibly committing fraud upon the welfare system. However, more could be done with random residential checks and cutting down the time they have to collect. Welfare fraud could be reduced by governing who is eligible for mandatory drug testing, home visits, and having shorter benefit collection periods. Mandatory drug testing should be implemented to be qualified for welfare assistance.
There are just too many applicants who are under the influence of some kind of drug that they do not have a prescription for. (Pollack, n.d.) “Almost 20 percent of welfare recipients report recent use of some illicit drug during the year”. (para. 1) Drug testing would cut down on the applicants that use drugs on a daily basis, and also help eliminate a portion of the fraud. This is a route that all states should put into effect, and they should make penalties for those that break this rule.

Another way to cut down on welfare fraud is to make unscheduled home visits.
According to “SNAP Handbook” (2012), “The CAO worker may use home visits to obtain verification when written evidence or collateral contacts are not sufficient to make an eligibility decision.” (Chapter 578) In doing unexpected visits, they could possibly catch any violators of the welfare requirements. This would make anyone thinking of committing fraud think twice about making that mistake.