County Faces Penalties for Food Stamp Errors
Los Angeles County faces penalties of nearly $1 million for errors in its food stamp program and could face even stiffer fines at a later time, officials said Thursday.
A review of food stamps issued for last year found that the county’s Department of Public Social Services erred in 10.92% of its allocations. The national average is under 10%.
As a result, the county faces a possible $948,000 sanction, part of $2.8 million in penalties that may be levied against the state, officials said.
In a memo to the Board of Supervisors, the department also warned that the state could face $12 million in sanctions for errors this year because of complications under welfare reform.
A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture said errors usually involve granting too many food stamps to families.
Tony Vargas of the social services department said the county had not been sanctioned for food stamps errors in recent memory, and that the state was negotiating with the federal government to ease the impact of the penalties.
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