A Democratic lawmaker in California is pushing legislation that would decriminalize most welfare fraud.
State Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas recently introduced SB 560, a bill that would eliminate criminal penalties for instances of welfare fraud involving less than $25,000.
“California’s safety net should lift families up, not trap them in poverty,” Smallwood-Cuevas told Fox News Digital. “Right now, a missed deadline or paperwork mistake can lead to felony charges that tear families apart — even when there’s no intent to deceive. SB 560 offers a smarter, more humane approach by allowing counties to resolve most overpayment cases administratively, holding people accountable without criminalizing poverty.”
Welfare fraud in California is regularly reported but rarely prosecuted, according to data from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). In Los Angeles County alone, investigators identified fraud in more than 5,000 cases, but only referred about 200 of them to the local district attorney’s office for prosecution.
Federal law enforcement has tried to fill the void left by state prosecutors. Earlier this year, multiple federal agencies busted five foreign nationals in Los Angeles who were using counterfeit EBT cards to steal from poor families. The Department of Justice (DOJ) said $181 million had been stolen from EBT beneficiaries in California between 2022-2024, and the victims are usually “low-income families who depend on EBT benefits to buy food and other household necessities.” Last year, DOJ arrested seven foreign nationals in San Diego for the same crime.
Local Bodega with EBT, Electronic Benefit Transfer, Accepted sign in window, Queens, New York. (Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The sheer amount of benefits California provides to welfare recipients make it a target, according to Shawn Ferris, Vice-President of the California Welfare Fraud Investigators Association.
“Part of the reason why California is so ripe for the picking is we give so much out,” Ferris told an ABC affiliate in Sacramento.
California’s food stamp program will pay out nearly $13 billion in benefits this year. Although food stamps are federally funded through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), they are administered by the state, meaning taxpayers nationwide are on the hook for any fraud or mismanagement. In 2023, more than 11% of California’s food stamp funds were improperly spent on overpayments, totaling roughly $1.3 billion in wasted taxpayer money. (RELATED EXCLUSIVE: GOP Lawmakers Want To Do Something About Food Stamps’ Freeloader Problem)
When asked by the Daily Caller News Foundation to provide an example of felony charges being brought under California law for a “missed deadline or paperwork mistake” in a welfare program, Senator Smallwood-Cuevas’ spokesperson said she was unavailable for a comment.
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