Welfare fraud investigations in Virginia Beach on the rise

VIRGINIA BEACH

Warning!

That's the message being sent to those intending to finagle food stamps and other public assistance.

In the past year, investigations into welfare-related fraud have increased in Virginia Beach and across the state.

State authorities investigated 16,218 cases of suspected welfare fraud last fiscal year. Evidence of fraud was found in 1,962, or 12 percent, of those, said Melissa Perdue, spokeswoman for the state Department of Social Services. The total number of cases was higher than in each of the previous three years. Some of the cases investigated in 2008 actually occurred years earlier, she said.

In Virginia Beach, the number of investigations into welfare fraud more than tripled between 2004 and 2008, when authorities investigated 876 cases estimated at more than $256,000 in welfare-related fraud, said Randy Thompson, director of the city Social Service Department's Administrative Services Division.

Evidence of fraud was found in 116 cases last year, he said.

State electronic tracking systems implemented last year have boosted the number of complaints for the city's three investigators to research, Thompson said.

One report allows administrators and investigators to track the use of the electronic benefits transfer card, revealing where and when users redeem benefits. The annual report identifies household members by Social Security number and reveals whether a recipient is obtaining benefits from a city where they don't live, he said.

The other report tracks whether a person is receiving benefits in more than one state, Thompson said.

Anonymous tips also are fueling the increase, he said.

"There are so many referrals coming in, we're prioritizing them," he said. "We're going after the high dollars first."

Among those were 10 cases involving women accused of fraudulently obtaining more than $84,000 in public assistance. They were indicted this month, and several more cases are scheduled to be heard by upcoming grand juries, according to Commonwealth's Attorney Harvey Bryant's office.

"Anyone who needs welfare should get it," he said. "When you cheat, those people are just taking money from the legitimately needy."

In some cases, applicants for welfare have falsely claimed they never were convicted of a felony; in others, benefits recipients have falsely claimed they were unemployed. Records searches have revealed both.

In many of the cases, defendants agree to plead guilty and pay restitution. Few wind up in jail, Bryant said.

The fraud must be "pretty big money for a judge to sentence somebody to jail for these things," he said. "It has to be pretty onerous or pretty blatant."

"A lot of these folks qualify for some level of assistance, but they have gotten much more than they were entitled to."

Shawn Day, (757) 222-5131, shawn.day@pilotonline.com