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Florida Faked Food Stamps, Gets $17.5M Fine

The Florida Department of Children and Families (FDCF) has agreed to pay $17,500,000 to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act in its administration of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

SNAP provides important benefits to help families in need, but the FDCF allegedly compromised the integrity of the program by implementing improper policies and practices to reduce its error rate. This led to the submission of false quality control data and information to the USDA, for which the state received unentitled performance bonuses for fiscal years 2011 and 2012.

“SNAP provides important benefits to help families in need,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “This settlement is an example of the department’s commitment to ensuring that taxpayer funds are spent appropriately so that the public can have confidence in the integrity of vital programs like SNAP.”

“While it is shocking these claims where submitted by the Florida Department of Children and Families, the state agency entrusted with assisting vulnerable and needy individuals, I commend the agency for correcting its conduct, cooperating with our investigation, and resolving its liability for its past actions,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Harrington for the Eastern District of Washington.

The USDA reimburses states for a portion of their administrative expenses in administering SNAP, including expenses for providing quality control. It also pays performance bonuses to states that report the lowest and the most improved error rates each year, and can impose monetary sanctions on states with high error rates that do not show improvement.

Under SNAP, the USDA provides eligible low-income individuals and families with financial assistance to buy nutritious food. Since 2010, SNAP has served on average more than 45 million Americans per month and provided more than $71 billion annually.

The settlement announced today resolves allegations that beginning in 2010, FDCF implemented improper policies and practices to reduce its SNAP error rate. The FDCF has agreed to pay $17,500,000 to resolve the allegations. The USDA requires that states have appropriate quality control processes in place to ensure that quality control processes serve as an accurate check on eligibility decisions.