New York State “Taxpayers Paying Double” For Massive Mistake

New York State is not secure enough and there have been tons of people stealing from people who get New York State benefits.

New York State has announced that New York City ALONE has had to refund people on assistance, such as EBT cards, over $28 million. People are scamming people with benefit cards because they do not have a chip on the card.

The Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance told Eyewitness News that the office is in the early stages of moving to chip technology for New York EBT cardholders. The cards right now have only swipe technology, which has allowed criminals to more easily steal the benefits of thousands of New Yorkers - a problem which has been occurring for the past several years", according to ABC7ny.com.

New York state has processed more than 68,000 claims for replacement benefits. Yikes.

So what's going to happen?

New York State has the highest amount of stolen benefits. Now, they are cracking down and starting to put chips in new cards. Why haven't it been done before now? Apparently, officials have been trying.

The leaders of the New York State Social Services Committee - New York State Senators Dean Murray (R-Patchogue) and Roxanne Persaud/(D-Brooklyn) - are thankful to Eyewitness News for our efforts. They said they had been trying for years to get OTDA to switch to chip-enabled debit cards.

"We're basically paying double - the taxpayers are paying double to help the people who actually need it and the criminals are making out like bandits," Murray said.