Cashing in On Kids a Journal Sentinel Watchdog Report Child-Care Scams Rake in Thousands Phantom Caretaking, Fake Jobs Used to Defraud Taxpayer-Funded System
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel › January 30, 2009
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Summary
On paper Angela Hale is a child-care provider.
She reported taking care of the same five kids seven days a week while their mom supposedly worked at a lawn-care service, even in the winter months.See the full content of this document
Extract
Cashing in On Kids a Journal Sentinel Watchdog Report Child-Care Scams Rake in Thousands Phantom Caretaking, Fake Jobs Used to Defraud Taxpayer-Funded System
The government paid Hale more than $30,000 last year for her child-care business.
It appears the government got duped. Hale didn't care for the kids at times she said she did, nor did the mom legitimately work, the Journal Sentinel found.The newspaper spent four months investigating the $340 million taxpayer-financed child-care system known as Wisconsin Shares and uncovered a trail of phony companies, fake reports and shoddy oversight.The program was designed to give low-wage working parents assistance with child care, encouraging them to get and keep jobs, rather than stay on welfare. While the need in many of the 34,000 cases is genuine, the system allows child-care providers and parents to easily con the system, capitalizing on children for public cash.The Journal Sentinel focused on the five Wisconsin counties with the highest number of subsidized child-care recipients -- Milwaukee, Dane, Racine, Kenosha and Brown counties.Among the findings:- Counties accept almost anything as proof of employment for parents seeking child-care assistance. Notes from employers, phone conversations, checks stubs -- all of which are easily fabricated -- serve as sufficient proof. As a result payments are sometimes approved based on bogus jobs.- Caseworkers sign off on child-care arrangements that defy the imagination...See the full content of this document
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