ASSOCIATED PRESS
TRENTON — Nearly 1 in 5 New Jersey households that received emergency food stamps after Hurricane Irene crashed into the state last year were ineligible for the benefits, a review found, the result of a mix of mistakes, confusion and fraud as some rushed to cash in what was a new program for the state.
The emergency Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, now known as D-SNAP, has been around for nearly 40 years as one of the federal government’s ways to provide food in disasters. While other states have used it before, New Jersey activated D-SNAP for the first time as a result of the scope of Irene, which caused widespread wind damage, power outages affecting nearly 2 million homes and massive flooding after it hit the state just barely below a hurricane level last August.
Passaic County more than doubled its number of food stamp recipients after the storm with nearly 22,000 new applicants -- the most by far of any county, according to officials and The AP. Those county officials taking the applications were under orders by federal monitors to not take the time to verify personal information, but instead take the applicants at their word.
“The purpose of this program after the disaster was to process as many people as possible,’’" said Mark Schiffer, head of the Passaic County's Board of Social Services, which handled the county's D-SNAP program. “They only needed, I think, proof of ID and proof of address.’’
Yet the post-Irene spike does not mean the applications were mistakes or fraudulent, Schiffer said. Rather, he said, it shows just how devastating the storm was on Passaic's population, with massive amounts of flooding destroying homes throughout the river basin.
“There was such a severe impact on a broad range of people,’’ he said.
As word spread about the extra food stamp aid, government officials said, thousands of people who were ineligible rushed to cash in in some communities, including areas not hard-hit by the storm.
“It’s whisper down the lane,” said New Jersey Human Services spokeswoman Nicole Brossoie. “Folks came and lined up believing they were eligible for a program.”
The total cost of benefits to New Jersey residents was $38.3 million — a fraction of the $145 million allocated in the state in federal housing aid after Irene. The average award for households already receiving food stamps was $171. Those not already receiving the benefits got an average of $559.
The federal government pays for the benefits and half the administrative costs.
In Burlington County, officials complained about a surge of applicants from Willingboro, a community that did not have heavy storm damage. Brossoie said similar reports came in from other regions.
Burlington County believes it could have rejected a large number of applications as either inaccurate or false if it had authorization and resources to better scrutinize them, social services director Daniel Boas said.
Tthe Human Services Department said it reviewed 281 randomly chosen households that received the special aid, finding that 51 — or about 18 percent — were ineligible.
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