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CURRENT PRESS RELEASE |
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8/8/11
The Michigan Department of Human Services (DHS) has removed an estimated 30,000 college students from the rolls of public food assistance, saving taxpayers around $75 million a year, numbers state Rep. Dave Agema says will benefit public assistance programs in general.
"I have been serious about ending the waste, fraud and abuse of our public assistance programs for almost five years, and cracking down on student abuse of Bridge Cards was a huge victory for Michigan taxpayers," said Agema, R-Grandville. "DHS took steps earlier this year to close a loophole that was costing our state millions, but we had estimated the cost-savings at far less than the $75 million it has turned out to be this year alone."
Agema hopes the accountability introduced to the Bridge Card program will translate to other public assistance programs that use the limited amount of taxpayer dollars available from Michigan residents. Students who truly need food assistance are still able to apply but student status alone is no longer used as a qualification since the DHS changes.
"With nearly twice the number of students abusing the system as we originally thought, I expect our other assistance programs will show similar manipulation as we work on rooting out the fraud," Agema said. "This just drives home the urgency of getting our public programs cleaned up and every dollar accounted for."
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