Mary Alice Reporting – The Tuscarawas County Job and Family Services Office is highlighting a type of fraud that typically comes from unreported changes.

Public assistance fraud refers to when government assistance is provided to a person on income-based reporting and then if there money situation improves, the client doesn’t report the change.

Director David Haverfield says that, since May 2022, there have been 50 fraud referrals made for investigation.

“Food assistance is always an area where we run into problems because household compositions change. People have an obligation to notify us when people in their household change, and folks aren’t always good about telling us that.

So far, over $44,000 in overpayment have been repaid. Clients intentionally committing fraud to obtain benefits will lose the ability in the future and could face criminal prosecution.

He notes that there is a component to all JFS benefits that involves integrity.

“We want people to get the benefits they’re entitled to but we’re not interested in letting people get things they’re not, so if they’re actively committing fraud or misrepresenting anything, we’re going to do our best to find it out and make them pay that money back.”

The JFS agency allows the public to provide information on individuals committing assistance fraud by calling 330-339-7791 or at www.tcjfs.org.

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