Council Member Susan Zhuang said nearly a hundred residents from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn have visited her district office in early December to report that their federal food aid benefits from their Electronic Benefit Trasfer card were stolen.
Over the past year, many Brooklyn residents, from Bensonhurst to Bedford Stuyvesant, have sought help from local officials when money from their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program disappears from their EBT cards.
Zhuang called on city, state and federal agencies to get involved to help stop the recent and latest outbreak of SNAP fraud. Over the course of two days, or the beginning of the month when benefits automatically land on EBT accounts, the council member's office fielded nearly 100 cases of SNAP fraud.
“They are complaining that as soon as money gets deposited into their accounts, it is stolen," Zhuang said.
This is after a summer where the council member's office handled over 800 cases, mostly from immigrant seniors.
"It is unacceptable that no city agency has been able to get this under control, especially after me and a dozen of my City Council colleagues sent a letter to the HRA commissioner requesting better security controls," Zhuang said. "My office does not have the resources to properly handle all these cases."
The council member said state and federal agencies must get involved to implement stricter security measures.
