Senator Calls for Crackdown on Fraud in Wisconsin Assistance Programs

State Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) announced Friday she is introducing legislation to create a new public assistance fraud unit within the state Department of Justice.

Darling, who was joined by Attorney General JB Van Hollen at her district office in Menomonee Falls in making the announcement, said the unit is being proposed because she wants to get rid of public assistance fraud in Wisconsin.

“What’s most important is that we’re going to prosecute fraud and we’re going to increase the penalties to a felony,” Darling said. “It’s going to be both providers and beneficiaries that we’ll target.”

Darling said she wanted to create the program in order to root out fraud after a stories done by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in the past several years showed massive fraud with the state’s FoodShare program and other assistance programs.

FoodShare provides low-income residents with Quest cards that can be at grocery stores to purchase food. The Journal Sentinel in April reported widespread problems with recipients defrauding the program.

The new unit would be modeled after the state’s Medicare fraud investigation unit, which Van Hollen said recovered more than $40 million during his first year in office alone.

If created, unit employees will work with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Children and Family Services, along with local prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, to spot fraud and prosecute those responsible.  

Van Hollen described the proposed unit as “another tool” for law enforcement.

While the creation will involve hiring more employees for the Department of Justice, both Van Hollen and Darling declined to give estimates as to how many will need to be hired or how much the unit will cost.

However, Darling stressed the unit plans to recover $6 to $7 for every $1 spent, so it will have a positive financial impact.

She said the unit needs to be created because Wisconsin’s FoodShare Program is growing faster than any other state in the country, with participation tripling in the past 10 years. She said more than 700,000 people are currently part of the program, which provide  out nearly $1 billion in assistance annually.

“This will hopefully act not only as an opportunity for us to not just prosecute, but to act as a deterrence to those people who are depriving our neediest citizens from the support they need and they will be held accountable for their activity,” Van Hollen said.

Darling said the measure will now go to a legislative committee, but she wouldn't predict when she expects to see action on the bill.