Welfare Fraud and Drug Abuse. an increase of people receiving public assistance. Last year there was a welfare fraud bust worth

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Gary Harper
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1 Waters 1 Drew Waters Ms. Gardner English May 2016 Welfare Fraud and Drug Abuse As the heroin and prescription pill epidemic infiltrates Allegany County, there has been an increase of people receiving public assistance. Last year there was a welfare fraud bust worth nearly $500,000 taxpayer dollars in Cayuga County (Benny). According to Gary Bulso, there has been a rise in the welfare use Enrollment in NYS cash assistance program swelled by 4 percent even though we had a rise in work. Is there some connection between the two? New York State needs to require its welfare recipients to be drug tested to ensure NYS tax payer s money isn t being used to feed their addiction. Some wonder whether drug testing welfare recipients is going to be worth it. Some states such as Missouri, Florida and Utah already have started to test recipients. It does cost a bit of money to test the recipients but it will also create more jobs which could bring in more income to the state. Most of the welfare recipients don t normally do any work to receive their benefits. New York State should make welfare recipients do some work for the benefits they are receiving, they could just to do community service to at least have some effort for their benefits. The welfare system in New York State needs to be revamped to do the proper updates so that the recipients are not using welfare to support their addiction for drugs, and so that they do not receive their benefits while having to do no work and they are making more than a person working a minimum wage job. Drug testing welfare recipients is something NYS people are asking for due to the rise in drug abuse and the tax payers are wondering if their tax dollars are being misused. With drug

2 Waters 2 testing welfare recipients the ones who are caught the welfare recipients abusing drugs will have their benefits taken away from them for a couple months or up to a year which will save the state money and tax payers money, they have to go to drug rehab facility and pay for it themselves (Weaver). When drug testing welfare recipients NYS will be initially weeding out the drug abusers and simply people who are abusing their benefits, which in theory saves money but only if they test positive (Gimmel). The welfare recipients do not like the idea of being drug tested because they believe it is an invasion of their rights. However people who work such as people who work at hospitals, Alstom, Dunkin Donuts and at Walmart s have to take drug test so citizens want them to be drug tested also. According to Gimmel it is not an invasion of their rights because the working people have to get tested which means it s legal. The government needs to drug testing welfare recipients for a while NYS never forced the issue on welfare drug abuse, they see the advantages that will benefit the state because it will scare some of the welfare recipients to stay off of drugs in the first place. What is the cost of drug testing welfare recipients in NYS? With the rise of drug abuse many states are considering testing welfare but are worried about the cost of testing because it cost $10 to $30 for a drug test and with all the people on benefits it tends to add up(covert). In, Missouri they had a budgeted cost for testing program that was $336,297 but with the amount of people that tested positive the state ended up saving money(covert). There were seven states that decided that they were going to try drug testing the welfare recipients and out of the 7 states they had 8.3% that would test positive but that seems like a low percent but it is not a bad because it is based off the places in the states that were tested so they did not test all recipients (Covert). According to Paul E. Peterson 51 New York State is one of the easiest states to receive benefits and is one of the highest welfare pay rate. Some states if they go to drug testing welfare

3 Waters 3 recipients may make them Pay for their own drug test like Florida does but the ones who pass get their money back(gimmel) and in the end the state is saving money both ways though there benefit and not having to reimburse them for their drug test. Welfare recipients tend to abuse the system in this day in age, they try to sneak around things such as drugs. According to Michael Benny the Cayuga County District Attorney, working with other agencies, used Tax Day as the day to round up suspects accused of ripping off the public assistance system. There were a total of 23 defendants they had stolen more than $43,000 in public money (Benny). They were going to use this money to go and get their drug paraphernalia. Ten of the defendants were trading and selling food stamps for drugs or for money to get drugs. Welfare recipients do use drugs while on the benefits but not all of them do people getting government help with social programs are more likely to use drugs (Weaver). Almost 20% of welfare recipients report recent use of some illicit drug during the year (Pollack). Some critics will claim that drug testing welfare recipients is not fair because they aren t working or because they are only on it for help, but most people on welfare are on it for years. If you look around your towns the people on welfare are normally born into the system and end up like their parents and rely on the government to live. It is fair for welfare to be drug tested one they are getting free money from the government without any questioning asked. Another reason people say no to drug testing welfare because they believe their aren t enough drug users to argue the cost of million dollars spent on testing but every person testing positive in NYS is more than a person working minimum wage which saves a bunch of money (Gimmel). The state saves money when any recipient is caught because they take away their benefits and the state no longer gives them their benefits so the states saving money. Some people just think that it is Discriminating against the poor who are most often to receive the benefits (HFR) which is

4 Waters 4 untrue! There are plenty of jobs that they could be applying to but they don t want to work some welfare recipients do have jobs. Many recipients stay on welfare and get free money that is tax free with no work involved. People will also say that it s an invasion of their rights to drug test the welfare recipients but it is not violating any rights the government is allowed to drug test the welfare because they are the ones giving them their benefits. NYS should also take away their benefits if the welfare recipients are uncomfortable with taking a drug test because they don t either want to get caught or they want to cause problems. With the rise in drug abuse and the rise in welfare recipients in NYS, something needs to be done in the near future if the United States still wants to be a strong growing economy. The welfare recipients in NYS are making $38,000 a year tax free, to sit around and do nothing and possibly use some of that amount to buy and support their drug habits and they are not being drug tested yet when they make more than a person working a minimum wage job who is required to take a drug test (Michael Tanner). New York State needs to revamp their welfare system one by lowering the amount of aid that they are receiving and two start to drug test them so that they are not abusing the system and getting away with it. The people in NYS are starting to get very frustrated due to welfare user that misuses their benefits. New York State is in need of a Welfare Reform. This kind of misuse of benefits can be caught and stopped so that the state money is not being used to support welfares drug habits, even though they say you can t buy drugs, alcohol or tobacco with food stamps is a lie according to (Medical Articles and Infographics) which is something that needs to be changed because it is supporting one of their habits when that is not what the benefits are supposed to be used for. When a welfare recipient test positive for drugs the state takes away their benefit for a certain period of time such as 6 months to a year or two and they are sent to a rehab center in which they have to pay for.

5 Waters 5 Works Cited Benny, Michael. "Welfare Fraud Bust worth Nearly $500,000 Taxpayer Dollars in Cayuga County." WSTM. Sinclair Broadcast Group, 16 Apr Web. 17 May Buiso, Gary. "Welfare Rolls Increasing, Even as Economy Improves." New York Post. Word Press, 08 Mar Web. 20 May Covert Josh. "What 7 States Discovered After Spending More Than $1 Million Drug Testing Welfare Recipients." ThinkProgress RSS. CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND, 26 Feb Web. 25 May Gimmel, Atalie. "The Verdict Is In On Drug Testing For Welfare Recipients - NYU Local." NYU Local. N.p., 10 Mar Web. 25 May Governor Cuomo Announces $8 Million to Combat Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse Among Young Adults Statewide." Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. N.p., 27 Feb Web. 25 May 2016 Peterson, Paul E., and Mark C. Rom. Welfare Magnets: A New Case for a National Standard. Washinton, D.C.: Brookings Institution, Print.b. 17 May Pollack, Harold. "Key Research Findings." SAPRP:. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 May "Pros and Cons of Drug Testing Welfare Recipients - HRFnd." HRFnd. CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND, 14 Feb Web. 1 May Tanner, Michael. "When Welfare Pays Better than Work." New York Post When Welfare Pays Better Thanwork Comments. WORDPRESS, 19 Aug Web. 1 May 2016

6 Waters 6 Weaver, Teri. "New York Legislators: Make People on Public Assistance Undergo Drug Testing." Syracuse.com. Syracuse Media Group, 27 Feb Web. 01 May 2016.

FAQ: Alcohol and Drug Treatments

FAQ: Alcohol and Drug Treatments Question 1: Are DUI offenders the most prevalent of those who are under the influence of alcohol? Answer 1: Those charged with driving under the influence do comprise a significant portion of those offenders