Multifaceted crackdown on welfare fraud underway

YOUNGSTOWN — Multiple law-enforcement and public-assistance agencies are coming together in a full-court press against public-assistance fraud, benefit overpayments and payments to ineligible people.

The seminar today on public-assistance fraud was organized by the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services and conducted in the Oakhill Renaissance Place auditorium.

Sgt. Mike Wilson of the Ohio State Highway Patrol in Canfield said troopers are increasingly “looking beyond the traffic stop,” for other offenses.

If they search a car and find public-assistance food cards, known as Direction Cards, they’ll attempt to find out whether the cards are authorized, he said.

County Sheriff Jerry Greene said his office last year resumed its notifications to the Social Security Administration to stop payments to inmates sentenced to more than 30 days in jail.

“If they’re collecting Social Security disability or benefits, they shouldn’t be doing so while the taxpayer and all of us are paying to have them incarcerated,” the sheriff said.

For the complete story, read Thursday's Vindicator and Vindy.com