Herkimer County officials buckling down on welfare fraud
By: Chelsea Rarrick
Updated: November 2, 2012
It's a crime that's taking money out of taxpayers pockets in Central New York and across the county.
And with welfare fraud being such a widespread issue, Herkimer County officials are cracking down.
Taxpayer, Mary Siver says she's proud of her integrity and also frustrated by those who try and "beat the system."
"My husband worked on farms all while my kids were young, we have eight boys and we were never on welfare, he worked everyday sick or not, " she said.
Trying to curb welfare fraud, Herkimer County officials from different departments met on Friday to discuss ways they can continue to crackdown on the issue.
"We have a unit in place, a welfare fraud unit, and we discussed today how we can do things better, streamlining the unit, make it more effective, more efficient," said Herkimer County Sheriff, Chris Farber.
The Commissioner of Social Services in Herkimer County says there are steps to take to help reduce the crime, and those steps involve working with the Sheriff's department.
"They go out and they do random checks on these homes to verify a series of information that's presented to them from the department," said Timothy Seymour.
And along with the crackdown, Herkimer County Assistant District Attorney, Jeffrey Carpenter has an important message.
"We are looking at this and we are taking this seriously as we have been, and we're going to up the stakes here a bit and go after people that commit welfare fraud in Herkimer County," he said.
County officials do want to point out that they support people who truly need it, but need to see a decrease in the people who try and commit fraud.
And with welfare fraud being such a widespread issue, Herkimer County officials are cracking down.
Taxpayer, Mary Siver says she's proud of her integrity and also frustrated by those who try and "beat the system."
"My husband worked on farms all while my kids were young, we have eight boys and we were never on welfare, he worked everyday sick or not, " she said.
Trying to curb welfare fraud, Herkimer County officials from different departments met on Friday to discuss ways they can continue to crackdown on the issue.
"We have a unit in place, a welfare fraud unit, and we discussed today how we can do things better, streamlining the unit, make it more effective, more efficient," said Herkimer County Sheriff, Chris Farber.
The Commissioner of Social Services in Herkimer County says there are steps to take to help reduce the crime, and those steps involve working with the Sheriff's department.
"They go out and they do random checks on these homes to verify a series of information that's presented to them from the department," said Timothy Seymour.
And along with the crackdown, Herkimer County Assistant District Attorney, Jeffrey Carpenter has an important message.
"We are looking at this and we are taking this seriously as we have been, and we're going to up the stakes here a bit and go after people that commit welfare fraud in Herkimer County," he said.
County officials do want to point out that they support people who truly need it, but need to see a decrease in the people who try and commit fraud.
