The United States of America is big on trying to help everyone succeed and attempting to get people on their feet during the hard times. But what happens happens when you have an abundant amount of people who currently need help and regulate how much you give people and whether or not they are abusing it? The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamps program, an abused system, is intended to be a helping hand. If you lose your job or are struggling for a period of time, it is a program that is there to help you get back on your feet and make ends meet until you can handle everything financially. The problem is that SNAP gets abused and has an extreme amount of fraud that it takes away from how beneficial the program is. SNAP is supposed to be a helping hand, not a handout. So are Food Stamps a beneficial thing or a waste of hard earned money? Statistically, even with the large amount of fraud in the SNAP program, the benefits and people that the program help actually outweigh the amountloss of fraudulent loss.
        

There is an enormous amount of participants in the SNAP program.There are relatively “44.5 Million people are on Food Stamps in America, that's 14,588 participants for each Walmart Super Center. The program is called Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). To remove the stigma of food stamps, the EBT card was created and is used the same way as a credit card” (Demonacracy Info).  There is a huge amount of money handed out annually that keeps gradually increasing as the economy decreases. That is a large chunk of money to be handing out when our country is already so far in debt, and if people really do not need these helpful things or do not utilize them in the right way then why do we continuously waste money? According to The New York Times, in a country town in Georgia there was a massive SNAP fraud that exceeded the amount of $4.6 Million. This was just in a tiny town, so think about how crazy that would be in larger cities. “It is hard to imagine that this tiny store off a country road in the middle of Georgia was the center of $4.6 million in food stamp fraud” (Food Stamp Fraud). If this is occurring all over the nation, how can we continue to try improving people’s lives when we are wasting money and the program is being bashed?
         SNAP fraud can be described as the abuse in any way of the program. This can be lying about your income to receive benefits, selling your stamps for cash, buying eligible items and then wasting them; it can be as simple as buying soda and then dumping them out to return the bottles for cash.  A vast majority of the time people will try to sell their stamps for cash. There are numerous listings on Craigslist where people will sell their stamps for a lesser value in cash that way the person buying them gets more out of the deal since they would be spending it anyway and the person receiving the benefits can use it whenever and wherever they wish. “While the vast majority of SNAP retailers and recipients play by the rules, any fraud weakens public confidence in government and the program. This hurts the ability of SNAP to serve over 47 million people who rely on the program to obtain healthy food. As part of the Administration’s new Campaign to Cut Waste, FNS is aggressively working to Fight SNAP Fraud and prevent any abuse of the program” (Fighting SNAP Fraud).
        

According to A New Step Forward in Fighting Food Stamp Fraud, there has been a large effort recently in trying to cut back on SNAP Fraud because it really is a big concern among citizens in the U.S. because everyone wants to know where their tax money is going. Barack Obama, President of the United states, has made a large push to do better regulating. He has made a new policy that will be given a high amount of attention to in terms of cutting down fraud and causing people using the government assistance to prove that they really need it. “Under our new policy, States can now hold off on replacing an EBT card until the household making the request makes contact with the State office and provides an explanation. The proposed rule provides States the option to require SNAP recipients to make contact with the state when there have been an excessive number of requests for card replacement in a year--a threshold defined by the State agency but no fewer than 4 requests, unless there is sufficient additional evidence of misuse. Previously, States did not have this authority” (A New Step Forward). This should greatly cut down on fraud and really put people in their place who have been abusing the system. Additionally, the website ended with a very positive note that should leave people feeling good about the program, In this article, ‘’A New Step Forward ,” the author statesa newspaper source, “Given how successful we have been over the years balancing the importance of access and integrity, I’m encouraged that this rule is one more tool for States that will give confidence to all Americans that we are ensuring people in need have access to the program and are using those benefits as intended—purchasing healthy food to put on their families’ tables” (A New Step Forward). This proves that with a little extra regulation, this program can really be more beneficial than a waste.
         When deciding whether the SNAP program is worthy it, you really have to think about all of the families that it does help. Can we honestly cut out all nutritional help and leave innocent people who just need a little helping hand without anything? I truly think that people overlook that aspect of the program. Yes, a lot of money is taken out of hard earned checks and given to other people, but everyone needs a little help at some time or another. How can we push everyone away who maybe needs a little push and assistance to get themselves going? I really think that with more regulations and making sure people don’t stay on the program for an excessive period of time will really help the program and help put a little bit of positivity back into it. Lastly, in an article talking about the SNAP program, there were major reasons why food stamps were beneficial t. To the people that use  the program the right way. Using the SNAP to get yourself back on your feet instead of abusing them for you benefit.The reasons being that more People Are Benefiting from Food Stamps than Ever because the number of people on the food-stamp program has increased by about 27 million since the recession, an increase that is still smaller than the increase in poverty, Children Are the Biggest Food-Stamp Benefactors, and that cutting Food Stamps Won’t Trim the Deficit (Five Reasons Food Stamps).
        

As you can see, there are many things to consider when evaluating whether or not the deficit in SNAP food benefits outweighs how many persons that it actually helps. Many kids and people get by on using these benefits. While SNAP does have a lot of fraud that do give the program a bad imagery, there has been sufficient evidence to show that the program is too valuable. With the new regulations being set and policies to make the program better and cut down, the program can go back to being a helping hand and not a hand out, m. Making the program a successful thing. SNAP fraud needs to end and honestly needs to be put back into the system to make it run smoothly and continue to get funding without cuts. The fraud really gives the SNAP program a bad name.

 

Works Cited
"America: The Food Stamp Nation ." Demonocracy.info Economic Infographics . 2012. Web. 1 May 2016. .
"Five Reasons Food Stamps Work Just Fine ." The American Prospect . 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. .
"Food Stamp Fraud, Rare but Troubling ." The New York Times . 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 2 May 2016. .
"A New Step Forward in Fighting Food Stamp Fraud." The White House President Barack Obama. 24 May 2012. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. .

"Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)." USDA United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service. 2 Mar. 2016. Web. 1 May 2016. .