Countywide : Welfare Fingerprint System Is Approved

The Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a plan to improve safeguards against welfare fraud by installing a sophisticated computer system that uses fingerprints to identify “double-dippers.”

The $1.37-million system would scan and index the fingerprints of the county’s 3,000 General Relief recipients, then compare them to the rolls of recipients both locally and in Los Angeles County.

Officials said the system would save enough money each year to cover the cost of operating it. Within five years, the system would probably save more than $104,000, officials estimate.

Under the system, recipients of General Relief--which pays $300 monthly, primarily to single adults--would be fingerprinted at one of the program’s two offices. The print on each recipient’s index finger would be scanned and stored by an electronic eye beneath a glass pane.

In a matter of seconds, the system could compare the print against everyone else receiving General Relief payments in Orange County and the more than 100,000 General Relief recipients in Los Angeles County, said Bob Griffith, chief deputy director of county social services.

Board members praised the plan, which they said would crack down on bogus claims and preserve the system’s money for the truly needy.

“We want to catch double-dippers, and I think this system will go a long way toward doing just that,” said Supervisor Roger R. Stanton, who has long advocated the oft-discussed system.

But Tim Shaw, an advocate for the homeless, said the assumption that the system is necessary--and the way it operates--are suspect.

Shaw, the executive director of the Orange County Homeless Issues Task Force, said welfare fraud is an exaggerated problem, inflated for political reasons. He also questioned the claim that the new system would indeed be cost-effective.

“I just don’t think the system is necessarily a good use of money,” Shaw said. “There is not that much fraud in the system. The perception that there is a great deal of fraud was created by politicians who want to cut welfare so they can balance their budgets. They would rather do it on the backs of the poor than by getting rid of tax loopholes for the rich.”

Shaw said fingerprinting relief recipients also is unwarranted.

“It’s hard enough for a proud person to go in and ask for this temporary help,” said Shaw. “We stigmatize it enough. Now what you’re saying to them when they walk in is that you’re assuming they are dishonest, too.”

While Shaw disputes the need for the system, Orange County officials point to the success of the fingerprinting program in Los Angeles County. The system there is estimated to have saved more than $12 million and been “extremely successful,” said Lisa Nunez, a computer services chief for the neighboring county’s social programs.

The system would “piggyback” an identical Los Angeles database that has been operating since 1992, saving Orange County tens of thousands in setup costs, Griffith said. Sharing the same database will also help nab recipients whose bogus claims have gone unnoticed because they crossed the county line and offered a false name, Griffith said.

Tuesday’s vote gave county social services officials the go-ahead to begin negotiations with their Los Angeles County counterparts. The system could be installed by October.