The state says he has made great purchases of similar purchases, tried to get his account a few times, entering some bad grocery purchases.

The female Suryeersville woman in Appalachian Kentucky has an explanation: he works in the store. Sometimes he can buy lunch there and then take groceries after work. Sometimes his son also applies his card.

An administrative hearing officer kicks him to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) However, based solely on the said suspicious pattern of shopping. He was settled – and won.

“It’s a Draconian to take Snob Benefits from a single mother without a clear and convincing evidence that deliberate marketing occurred during food shortage, “Franklin judgment Thomas Wingate said in his 2023 decision.

A Substance with Disqualifications

Over the past five years, Kentucky Cabinet for Health & Family Services Loading hundreds of fraud cases more reliable to transaction data with intent to mock people’s food benefits.

Judges, lawyers and legal experts have said in interviews and court documents that such evidence is slightly proved to be smaller. Kentucky Public Radio reviews many decisions of the hearing and court documents from the last five years in which the Cabinet proves a person who is “traded,” or sold out, their benefits.

Kentucky is too aggressive to destroy people from snap benefits that the state is second to the country for Florida in Per-capita, according to the latest Florida data from 2023.

In the last decade, Kentucky disqualifications rose from less than 100 in 2015 to more than January 2024, according to records Kentucky Public Radio earned.

Another judge in Franklin County in 2023 was ordered by the Cabinet to stop disqualified people based on transaction data, but in the three-cases the health agency continued to carry out such cases.

Transactional data alone cannot prove intent to commit fraud nor show the actual result of any individual transaction, adding, “i’m not saying that folks didn’t do it, but i don’t think the cabinet in a lot of these cases has met their burden of proof, either. ”

Dealing with punishment, recipients are forced to withdraw their hearings

Kentuckians received notice of their said suspicious activity through mail letters, where they asked voluntarily to ignore their right to a hearing and automatically accepts punishment. At first breach, that is usually a year of snap restriction. They also need to pay the full amount that the state says they use.

Usually, these cases involve a small amount of money. Records show over 900 people losing for “trafficking” or misuse of at least $ 1,000 since 2022. The lowest amount says 14 cents.

The state has led to the administrative hearing of waivers since 2015, and by 2023, almost a quarter of all disqualifications is Via Waiver. Some cases of identifying individuals do not fully understand the odds of wains and are encouraged to sign officials.

Kentucky Public Radio examined over two dozen cases since 2020 where the Cabinet accuses an individual to give up participants, and no evidence presented, according to participants’ decisions.

Kendra Steele, a spokesman for Cabinet for health and family servicesRefuses to schedule a conversation with Cabinet officials after many requests. Steele says an email “We haven’t” carried out sales cases based solely on transaction data and acknowledged that it is not enough to prove the purpose.

In response to different questions, Steele wrote the investigation of cheat allegations involved in income, living situations “and spending patterns that indicate sales.” He does not specify how any factors can be used to prove deliberate misuse or selling benefits of snaking, or how it varies with data transaction. Steele says another email that they also interviewing vendors and snap recipients.

‘These are our fellow Kentuckians hungry’

Almost 4 of the 25 Kentuckians suffered food insecurity, similar to the national rate of about 14%, according to an Associated Press Analysis in the US Census Bureau and Feeding American data.

The USDA Stop collecting and releasing statistics on food insecurity After October, saying September 20th the numbers become “excessive politics.” The decision comes to the start of Federal cutting cutting for food and nutritional strength programs around the country.

In the final fiscal year, 1 of 8 Kentuckians benefit from Snap, previously called food stamps. The insecurity of food in Kentucky’s rural areas is more stiff, and the legal representation is more difficult to come.

“People who benefit from these programs are some of the people we need to help with most of this country,” says Dodds. “These are our fellow Kentuckians hungry as a result of the unlocated allegations, cheating and abuse.”

The Cabinet denies the KPR request for cases of individual accusations in the fraud that begins in the early 2024 to include evidence used in accusations. But administrative hearing decisions checked by KPR from 2020 to 2023 includes evidence that the Cabinet has relied; Officers often tell someone who interacts with their benefits based on state shopping standards regarded as suspected.

Expertise says buying officers purchase data

National Legal Expertic Access Expertist experts say a greater more of the transaction data is not unique to Kentucky. The transaction data was originally meant as a tool to determine fraud cases – not as a way to prove it, Georgetown Law Supor said.

He studied the disqualifications on the snap for decades, and saw many cases where he believed in transaction data charged with cases of witnesses, affidavits, video evidence and video deals.

In a redacted 2023 state listening decision, a listening officer decides a woman in eastern Kentucky City at McKee’s McKee’s McKee in a year. The decision also said he has investigated his balance several times, which makes some insufficient funds tests and improperly entered his pin number.

Lost his snap benefits for a year. In an appeal, the woman told the state that he had two children and just found she was pregnant.

“Everyone forgets to take something and have to go back to the store and get it,” he wrote, protecting his back-to-back purchases.

He received another hearing, but the result did not change.

Cabinet officials recognize cross surveys in a 2023 case that back-to-back transactions and entire dollar purchases are not told that the cabinet they are considered suspicious.

But all these things are used as evidence – sometimes the only evidence – that a person uses their benefits.

Kristie Goff, an estimated legal aid lawyer in the southeastern Kentucky, which has previously seen most of these cases, even if they decreased in the last year.

“There are few times in cases that I depend on, where a client did not give me a perfectly reasonable explanation for transactions,” Gofff said. “No receipts, no video footage to show that someone is doing something wrong. It’s just a number written on a paper.”

While talking to history is not enough to prove marketing, Kentucky judges have stopped asking the state’s replacement how it trained employees.

State training materials focus nearly across the purchase patterns

In response to a request request to records, the Cabinet gives KPR with documents used to train investigators through deliberate program violations. It appears that they are almost exclusively discussing transaction data, including investigating back-back fees, many transactions and purchases in total dollars.

In 2020, Michigan appelllate judges have decided to transaction data inadequate to prove to be a business – or man – fraudulent used snap benefits.

Dodds believe that the pattern should be for all states, including Kentucky.

He at first stages of systematic review of thousands of listening decisions to hear 2020 and 2023. The data stated with the benefits of 2020.

“There may be some cases I say there is real evidence that they have something wrong,” says Dodds. “Someone where a woman on the phone is with the listening officer while she is active trying to sell her benefits.

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The Associated Press Data Journalist Kasturi Panjady has contributed to this report.

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This reporting is part of a series called sow of strength, a collaboration Between the Institute for Nonprofit News’ News Network And the Associated Press focuses on how the rural communities around the US have navigated food security issues. Nine nonprofit newsrooms are involved in the series: The beacon,, Capital b,, LINK TO LATINO NC,, Check the midwest,, Jefferson County Beacon,, hair,, Louisville Public Media,, Maine Monitor and Minnpost. News news network is funded by Mobile News initiative and Knight Foundation, etc.

The Associated Press and Science Department Health Department receives support from Howard Hughes Department of Science Education in Science in Science and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is only responsible for all content.