Welfare Cheats Targeted : Fingerprint System Can Reveal ‘Double Dippers’

SANTA ANA —  With public fanfare and high expectations, Orange County officials Wednesday unveiled a $1.3-million fingerprinting system aimed at tracking welfare recipients and cracking down on “double dippers” who bilk the system.

In the first day of operation, the high-tech fingerprint system--which is modeled after a similar program in Los Angeles--caught one person apparently seeking aid in Orange County while collecting checks in Los Angeles County, officials said.

“This is another tool in the arsenal of fighting welfare crime,” Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said during a news conference amid dozens of welfare applicants at the Santa Ana office of the Orange County Social Services Agency. “This will prevent hard-earned taxpayers’ money from going to people who perpetrate welfare fraud.”

Social service officials estimate that the new tracking system, called the Automated Fingerprint Image Reporting and Match system, or AFIRM, will pay for itself in five years. Of 26,000 applications in the county last year for some sort of public assistance, nearly 5,400 were found to be fraudulent for one reason or another, officials said.

“It’s impossible to tell how many slip through,” said Larry M. Leaman, director of the county’s social services. “This system will have a tremendous deterrent effect.”

Initially, the new fingerprinting system will screen the approximately 3,400 recipients of general relief welfare payments as well as future applicants for the program, which provides a $299 monthly stipend for indigent single adults without children. Eventually, officials hope to screen about 40,000 recipients of Aid to Families With Dependent Children.

In April, Los Angeles County started fingerprinting adults with dependent children as part of a state pilot program. Orange County is the fifth county to have the fingerprinting capability. To protect recipients’ civil rights, law enforcement agencies are prohibited by state law from using welfare fingerprinting for anything but welfare fraud cases, officials said.

Most of the applicants Wednesday had few objections to giving a fingerprint, though the program does draw fire from welfare-rights activists.

“I think it’s a good idea,” said William Llamas, 41, an unemployed parks worker from Las Vegas. “There’s a lot of fraud out there. It’s a good idea to buckle down on them.”

Robert Morgan, 47, of Seal Beach, said it didn’t bother him at all.

“If we can cut out the fraud, maybe those of us who really need the help” will get it, said Morgan, a disabled mechanic.

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Like Llamas and Morgan, all general relief applicants and recipients in the county will place their right and left index fingers on a computer scanner that compares the prints to tens of thousands of other recipients in Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Stanton said the system may be bolstered in the near future when San Diego County initiates its fingerprinting program.

The screening targets welfare recipients who try to collect extra checks by using false identification and Social Security cards to file multiple claims. Applicants who refuse to cooperate will be denied aid.

“This is the closest thing to a foolproof system that we have found,” Stanton said.

Some activists for the poor contend that the fingerprinting program worsens an already humiliating situation in a person’s life.

Tim Shaw, executive director of the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force, said some homeless clients have complained that fingerprinting “is a little bit dehumanizing, especially for people applying for assistance the first time.”

Shaw said he favors eliminating fraud throughout government programs, but believes “there is an inordinate amount of attention given” to welfare cases. If the state truly wants to save taxpayer money, he said, it could pursue “more pressing needs” such as tax fraud cases.

“There’s climate now of blaming the state’s economic woes on welfare recipients,” Shaw said.

State Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), who is chairwoman of the Senate’s Health and Welfare Committee, said there are better programs to fund than installing a new fingerprinting system.

“I feel stimulating job creation is more important,” she said. “How much more should the state or even Orange County invest” in preventing welfare fraud, she asked. “The savings aren’t guaranteed and it could end up costing us more than the savings.”

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Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, who participated at the news conference, estimated that nearly $70 million in potential welfare fraud was prevented last year alone through the efforts of social service and district attorney investigators. He said the figure reflects the savings that occur when the county prevents a person from fraudulently collecting money over several years.

During Wednesday’s news conferences, county officials said the program is not intended to embarrass recipients or deter legitimate welfare payments.

“It’s very important in our society to give people the assistance they need to pull themselves up and get a new start,” Stanton said. The new program, he added, is intended to ensure that public funds go to those who really need help, “and not to the cheats and welfare fraud perpetrators.”

Fingerprinting for Relief

A new identification system designed to crack down on welfare fraud will first be used on all general relief recipients and applicants in Orange County. The Automated Fingerprint Image Reporting and Match system, or AFIRM, is expected to initially screen about 3,400 from the general relief program. The details:

* Cost: $1.3 million; expected to pay for itself in five years.

* Objective: Track welfare recipients and prevent “double dippers” who bilk system.

* Who will be printed: All who apply or receive general relief benefits.

* How it works: Applicant index fingers placed on electronic scanner, which takes a picture of fingerprints and stores it in AFIRM computer.

* Matching prints: Applicant fingerprints compared against others in system. If prints match, benefits may be denied or terminated and a sanction may be imposed.

* System users: Only public assistance social services agencies.

* Future use: Officials want to add Aid to Families With Dependent Children recipients.

Source: Orange County Social Services Agency

Los Angeles Times