Pubdate: Sunday, 26 April 1998
Source: Washington Post
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Author: Barbara Vobejda Washington Post Staff Writer

PRISONER BENEFIT CUTOFF EXPANDED

Clinton Orders New Action to Prevent Illegal Federal Payments

President Clinton yesterday ordered federal agencies to take new action to
prevent prisoners from receiving federal benefits while they are behind
bars, a problem that costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year.

Citing recent efforts by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to crack
down on illegal payments to inmates, the president directed officials in
the departments of Labor, Veteran Affairs, Justice, Education and
Agriculture to do the same. Clinton instructed the agencies to match their
lists of beneficiaries against a database of prisoners maintained by SSA.
The database is regularly updated and includes 99 percent of all prisoners
in the country.

While inmates have been legally banned from receiving such aid for some
time, agencies often have had poor information about who is incarcerated,
particularly in local jails.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton said he was disturbed when he learned
recently that prisoners were receiving Social Security and disability
payments illegally and decided to take action to extend existing anti-fraud
efforts to other types of federal payments.

"Inmates were in effect under our law getting away with fraud, primarily
because it was so difficult to gather up-to-date information on criminals
in our nation's more than 3,500 jails."

"Now we are going to build on the Social Security Administration's success
in saving taxpayers from inmate fraud," he said. "We will ensure that those
who have committed crimes against society will not have an opportunity to
commit crimes against taxpayers as well."

The issue was raised recently when SSA's Inspector General, David C.
Williams, told a House committee that tens of thousands of prisoners
illegally draw Social Security and disability payments each month. At the
time, Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) said he had become aware of the problem
when a local sheriff in his state reported that his inmates were cashing
Social Security checks at the beginning of each month.

But better computer checks, as well as a new bonus system to encourage
sheriffs and prison officials to report fraud, have begun to make a
difference, federal officials say.

As result of anti-fraud efforts, Clinton said yesterday, the federal
government has suspended benefits to 70,000 prisoners. Those savings,
projected over the next five years, would amount to $2.5 billion.

The president promised that greater savings would be realized by extending
the crackdown to food stamps, veterans benefits, education aid and other
payments. White House aides estimated the additional savings at $180
million to $500 million over five years.

The 1996 welfare legislation authorized bonus payments of up to $400 to
sheriffs and prison officials if they reported to the federal government
inmates who were illegally receiving benefits. Nearly 3,000 fraudulent
payments have been reported as a result.

While the "executive memorandum" signed by the president yesterday names
the Agriculture, Education, Labor and Veterans Affairs departments, it also
directs other executive agencies with benefit programs to determine whether
they could also use the SSA database to eliminate improper payments to
prisoners.

"We owe it to the American people to ensure that their Social Security
contributions and other tax dollars are benefiting only those who work
hard, play by the rules and are by law eligible to receive them," Clinton
said. "That's exactly what we are trying to do."

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