LETTER: A plan for food-stamp fraud

After reading your Monday editorial regarding states that are not cooperating with addressing SNAP fraud, contributing to the waste of federal monies used to support these state managed programs, I begin to wonder if a fix is easier than people would admit.

I understand that many people legitimately require a food supplement to survive, and I would never want to see anyone who needs this go without staple food to support themselves and their families. But why not provide all those receiving SNAP benefits a 90- or 120-day period for re-application to the program, clearly defining the rules for eligibility? This would, at a minimum, scrub all the rolls of the deceased who somehow are still collecting these benefits while reassuring those citizens of this country who truly need this help an uninterrupted flow of funds.

I’m sure members of some political party may consider this an unacceptable solution (but to them anything seems too radical). But I believe it would help eliminate a high majority of the game players and the associated fraud that is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually, without hurting those in need.

Every supplemental program provides an unfortunate opportunity to those who “work the system” to play games and cheat. But it seems this would be a “kinder and gentler” way to weed out some of the waste.