Mahoning County collects on overpaid food assistance benefits

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County collected more than $162,000 in restitution last year for overpaid food assistance benefits, a state official said this morning.

That puts the county among the top 20 percent of Ohio’s counties in such collections, said Michelle Thompson, a fraud control specialist with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services in Cleveland.

Mahoning County paid out $66.6 million in such benefits, known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, last year.

“Public assistance fraud is not a victimless crime. Public assistance fraud truly does cost everyone,” Thompson said.

Thompson spoke at a forum at Oakhill Renaissance Place in observance of May as Public Assistance Fraud Awareness Month.