Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced a plan to reduce the stigmatism associated with receiving food stamps by eliminating New York City’s requirement that all recipients be fingerprinted.

‘We must increase participation in the food stamp program, remove barriers to participation, and eliminate the stigma associated with the program,’ Cuomo said in his State of the State speech last month. ‘No child should go hungry in the great State of New York and we will do all that we can to prevent it.’

The fingerprinting requirement is only carried out in New York City, which means city residents must clear this extra hurdle that other New Yorkers do not. In the city, an estimated 600,000 people, or 29 percent of those eligible to get food stamps, do no seek the help to which they are entitled, leaving nearly $2 billion in unclaimed funds.

In general, the number of people collecting food stamps in the United States is at an all-time high of 45.8 million, a 12 percent increase from a year ago and a 34 percent increase from two years ago. However, these numbers are a reflection of economic conditions rather than fraud. They should reverse as the U.S. gross domestic product begins to rise and unemployment falls.

At a time of such great economic hardships, people depend on assistance programs to feed themselves and their children. Hurdles, such as fingerprinting, can intimidate them from seeking help.

Besides for Arizona, New York is the only state that currently requires fingerprinting. California and Texas ended the practice last year. California Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (D-Sylmar) said that eliminating the requirement reduced ‘the burden on the neediest Californians to ensure that they can get the food they need.’ Estimates showed ending the practice delivered $850 million to needy Californians, while generating $1.4 billion in increased economic activity statewide.

In New York, Erasma Beras-Monticciolo of the East River Development Alliance, a nonprofit that administers food stamp applications, said ‘there’s no doubt that there will be a rise’ in participants after fingerprinting is eliminated. She specifically noted groups like women recently released from prison and the ‘working poor’ — those who cannot afford to take a full day off work to go through the burdensome process.

Critics of Cuomo’s plan, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, say fingerprinting prevents fraud. Critics assert the plan does not deter prospective food stamp recipients from applying. ‘When you have fingerprinting, it detects fraud, which means it gives people incentive to not commit fraud,’ Bloomberg said.

The mayor’s concern may be valid, but empirical evidence shows it is insubstantial. In 2010, fingerprinting successfully detected only 1,900 duplicate cases out of the 1.8 million people in New York state who received food stamps. This saved only $5.2 million last year, a minuscule fraction of the nearly $5.1 billion given out.

New York state ranks 40 in terms of participation rates of those eligible to receive food stamps. California, Texas and Arizona, which all engaged in fingerprinting at the time the statistics were taken, ranked 50, 46 and 33, respectively.

Fingerprinting is not the only an unnecessary stigmatism associated with receiving food stamps, but there is also certainly a correlation between the practice and a lack of participation. The huge benefits of providing food to those truly in need and reducing the number of hungry children in our state seem to far outweigh the tiny advantages associated with fingerprinting.

New York City Council speaker Christine Quinn, who hailed Cuomo’s plan, rejoiced that now ‘no one who needs food stamps is going to have to be fingerprinted like they murdered or robbed somebody.’

Stephen Fox is a graduate student studying for his master’s degree in entrepreneurship and a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. His columns appear weekly. He can reached at smfox03@syr.edu.  

Published on February 2, 2012 at 12:00 pm