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Food Stamp Fraud: Take Home Pay Is Key For Some State Employees; House GOP's Larry Cafero Wants To Meet 8 Percent Not Approved

By CHRISTOPHER KEATING

HARTFORD

Why would highly paid state employees apply for emergency food stamp benefits when it would appear they would not qualify?

The reason, veteran state employees said, might be the rules of the game. The Department of Social Services workers who processed the benefits were told that they should look at the applicant's self-declared take-home pay, not their gross pay, according to a worker directly involved in awarding benefits.

Another worker said that many state employees have a relatively low take-home pay because their mortgages, car insurance, and homeowners' insurance can all be deducted through the credit union. The state comptroller's spokeswoman, Tara Downes, confirmed Monday that those items, as well as union dues, health insurance premiums, and contributions to the state's version of a 401 (k) program, are routinely deducted from paychecks and make the take-home pay much smaller.

Based on those guidelines, some DSS workers assumed that a large number of state employees would apply for the program - even when supervisors did not make that assumption. Overall, more than 23,000 citizens applied, including about 800 state employees. Of those who applied, 92 percent received benefits.

"Friends told friends. I assume that's where a lot of these state workers came from,'' said one worker who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We have a great credit union. A lot of state employees did qualify.''

She added, "The lower-paid, new state troopers - especially if they have a family - could qualify. They said it was the net pay during that timeframe.''

Andrew McDonald, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's chief legal counsel, told Capitol Watch that he was not personally aware of any cases where a home mortgage payment, for example, might be in dispute. The issue, he said, could potentially be further complicated by child support payments or garnishments on wages.

"Those are fact-driven questions that will be part of the investigation,'' said McDonald, who has been heavily involved in the matter on behalf of Malloy. "Those are the types of questions that would be analyzed.''

The two-page application for benefits says that a person should “list the source and amount of take home pay, as well as any other income that is or will be received by your household while the emergency program is running.’’ That includes the amounts in checking and savings accounts, as well as in the state employee credit union. Officials at DSS and in the comptroller's office said that "take home pay'' is the amount taken home after all deductions. State employees are being investigated to see if they accurately reported the amount of take home pay, as well as the money in bank accounts.

McDonald has stressed that state employees who answered the questions truthfully have nothing to fear. But he said those who have falsified their income or assets should be concerned. Malloy has stated flatly that those who defrauded the state will be fired.

Overall, 34 state employees have been referred to the department's commissioners for disciplinary proceedings. So far, state officials have not announced how many state employees have been cleared of any wrongdoing.

Malloy said Friday that the number of cases reviewed and the number of employees cleared would be announced, but those numbers were not available on Monday night.

House Republican leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk said he would like to know the number of employees who have been exonerated so that it is crystal clear "that we don't have 800 crooked state employees.''

Based on the mistakes that he has seen by the state program, Cafero said he is wondering why the 92 percent approval rate wasn't even higher. He asked - based on the revelations so far - how anyone was turned away.

"Who was that? Donald Trump and Bill Gates?'' Cafero asked Capitol Watch. "I want to meet these 8 percent.''

A veteran state employee who worked directly on awarding benefits said the long lines were simply part of a program that was marked by little training and little verification. With lines outside virtually every DSS office, the state employees were working as fast as possible to process the applications.

"They had scheduled the training, but the crowds started coming in,'' the worker said. "My training was two minutes in a cubicle, watching a supervisor process a D-SNAP application. Nobody went [to training] because there wasn't enough time. We were just thrown in the deep end, and it was sink or swim.''

Regarding the requirements for the applicants, the worker said, "We were told to ask for the self-declared, take-home pay minus self-declared storm losses and expenses.''

The applicants were rushed through the line as quickly as possible, she said.

"When they said two minutes per person – in the paper – that is absolutely true,’’ she said. “The supervisors were doing it, too. Everybody was doing it the same way. We were doing it exactly the way we were told to do it. … It was crisis management at that point. It was completely crazy.’’

The worker rejected the notion - as told to The Courant by some state employees - that some DSS workers would deliberately change the numbers on an application so that a fellow state employee could qualify for benefits.

But she said that state workers did offer assistance to applicants in filling out the forms.

"We prompted people,'' she said. "Did you purchase batteries? Did you purchase propane? Did you go to the laundromat?''

She added, "I would say - and this is not an exaggeration - every other person walking in the door was lying.''

But knowing the details of the program and the scrutiny that often comes upon state workers, one veteran state worker said that she and others did not attempt to obtain benefits.

"We kind of smelled a rat. I did, anyway,'' she said. "You can tell when trouble is coming, and it looked like trouble.''