Michigan: 810 lottery winners booted off public assistance

Public assistance is supposed to be for the poor. But the entitlement mentality of much of our population, which has been bolstered after six years by our food stamp president, remains entrenched even by those who have benefited from a cash windfall.

From MLive:

More than 7,200 Michigan Lottery winners were living in households that received public assistance of some kind in 2013, and the state was able to close about 11 percent of those cases as a result.

The Michigan Department of Human Services shared those findings Thursday in its latest "lottery match report," analyzing the impact of a 2012 law that allows the agency to cross-check lottery winnings with public assistance programs and, in some cases, end benefits.

DHS identified 7,216 lotto players who won at least $1,000 last year and lived in a household that received food stamps, Medicaid, or some other form of assistance. Their winnings totaled nearly $44 million, or about $6,056 per case. Eighteen cases involved jackpots valued at $100,000 or more.

But current state and federal laws only allowed the department to close 810 of the cases, or about 11 percent, according to the report. One case involved a lotto player who won more than $4 million.

Michigan's actions have saved taxpayers $2 million.

Other states need a similar law to weed out these unworthy recipients of taxpayer funds.