Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker defended the state’s EBT system after a report claimed some participants in the welfare program committed fraud to pay for hotels and vacations in Hawaii, Las Vegas and Alaska.
Gov. Baker responded to a report in the Boston Herald that said a review of more than 2 million EBT expenses in the 2019 fiscal year revealed thousands of out-of-state transactions. EBT cards were used on 18 different instances in Hawaii. For example, an EBT card was used to buy a round-trip ticket from Massachusetts to Hawaii that cost $700.
The state’s Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), which operates the EBT system, prohibits cardholders from using the EBT cards for a vacation. However, you can still use your EBT card for hotel services. The Baker administration sent a response to the Herald Tuesday, saying that the governor has invested $1 million into “program integrity” at the DTA to strengthen protocol in place that detects fraud.