CLEVELAND — Robert Cassel III is losing faith in the system that puts food on his table.
The 61-year-old Cleveland man has been the victim of electronic benefits theft twice in the last two months – losing his SNAP, or food-stamp, payments to criminals.
In December, thieves stole $911.18 in nearly a dozen transactions linked to New York delis and corner stores.
“I’ve never been to New York,” said Cassel, a former nursing aide who was sidelined by a stroke in 2010.
He managed to get part of his stolen benefits back, thanks to a federal repayment program for victims. Then, the money vanished overnight – along with his January payment.
“How can I get a new card with new numbers, change the password – and they get my information again? … How can they do that?” he asked.
This time, there’s no safety net for Cassel – or the other EBT cardholders who are falling prey to thieves. The federal reimbursement program ended on Dec. 20. After a dramatic week of political sparring in Washington, D.C., an extension got stripped out of a critical spending bill.
RELATED: Federal repayment for stolen SNAP benefits is ending.
But the problem isn’t going away. News 5 is still getting calls from theft victims across the region, from single parents and low-wage workers to disabled and elderly adults.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and its county-level partners keep issuing warnings about card skimming, where criminals put covers, tiny cameras and fake pin-pads on store payment machines. After stealing card numbers and PINs, criminals create duplicate cards or use the information to make online purchases, draining people’s accounts.
Cardholders like Cassel end up empty-handed. And taxpayers are footing the bill.
'They are the victims here.'
The federal government has spent over $220 million on theft reimbursements over the last two years, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That number is likely to climb since people whose benefits were stolen before Dec. 21 can still seek repayment.
Since mid-2023, Ohio officials have verified nearly 30,000 theft reports, totaling more than $14.8 million in stolen benefits. According to state records, December was the worst month for thefts so far.
“We shouldn’t want a single dollar to be stolen from people,” said Rachel Cahill, a SNAP policy expert who is a visiting fellow at the Center for Community Solutions, a nonpartisan think tank based in Cleveland.
“It is not benefit recipients themselves who are committing the theft. ... They are the victims here," she said. "And it is all of our jobs to contact our legislators and do what’s possible to stop them from being injured by this criminal activity.”
Cahill and other advocates say the long-term fix is adding security features to EBT cards. Those cards only have magnetic stripes. They haven’t been upgraded to include the security chips that are embedded in debit cards and credit cards.
RELATED: 'A failure of government.' As food-stamp theft soars in Lorain, experts say urgent help is needed
The USDA updated its technical standards in August, allowing states to roll out chip-and-tap technology. But legislation to mandate that transition – and pay for it – has been languishing in Congress despite bipartisan support.
California and Oklahoma are moving forward anyway. They’re working with vendors to distribute chip cards this year.
Other states, including Ohio, are waiting for the federal government to act – and to foot the bill. Today, the USDA will only reimburse states for half the cost of new cards.
“We don’t have to wait for the federal government to do that,” Cahill said. “I think the biggest ask for state lawmakers right now is to move towards that stronger technology.”
But, regardless of who pays for it, enhancing cards and retailers' payment systems will take years.
“We need reimbursement in the meantime,” Cahill said. “And that’s something that Congressional representatives need to hear from their constituents.”
News 5 contacted Ohio’s new U.S. senators, Republicans Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, to ask about their positions on reimbursement for theft victims and broader efforts to upgrade EBT cards. Their offices did not respond.
U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown represents the Cleveland area and is the second-highest-ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee. She hopes federal reimbursement will be revived in a spending bill in March or a new farm bill, which has been in limbo since 2023.
“We have to get this done, right?” Brown said during a recent interview. “People’s lives are being adversely impacted, and … I don’t see this as a partisan issue. This is about supporting vulnerable people who have been a victim of crime and fraud.”
Ideally, she said, any reimbursement program would be retroactive to cover victims like Cassel.
'There has to be a better way.'
Brown is less certain about the viability of a broad move to chip-and-tap cards.
“Installing chips and things of that nature would be an added expense,” she said. “So I think, right now, (reimbursement) is probably the most cost-efficient way to address the issue. But I’m certainly willing to have those conversations with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to see how we can put measures in place to … reduce the opportunity for these criminals to really take advantage of people who are in a very vulnerable situation.”
She echoed guidance from the USDA and the state about ways cardholders can protect themselves.
Officials say people should change their PINs often, particularly right before their monthly benefit payments arrive, check their balances regularly, and report any suspicious activity.
Law enforcement agencies are also telling consumers to inspect and pull on payment terminals at stores to ensure they haven’t been tampered with.
In Ohio, SNAP recipients can lock their accounts using an app called Connect EBT. However, some cardholders tell News 5 they’ve struggled to download or access the app provided by Conduent, the publicly traded company that manages the state’s EBT system.
“With all this technology, there has to be a better way,” Cassel said.
'Do something'
The first time his benefits were stolen, Cassel found out when he was at the store trying to buy groceries. His account records show transactions ranging from $16.66 to $104.63 at businesses in Manhattan, Harlem, the Bronx and Baldwin, New York.
The second time, the spending spree occurred online, at BJ’s Wholesale Club (more than $827, according to Cassel’s account statements) and Walmart.
“They don’t know who took it,” he said. “All they can tell you is where it was spent. … You can find bin Laden, but you can’t find who’s taking my SNAPs every month.”
Though he's struggling, Cassel is more worried about how this ongoing crime wave hits larger households and families with children. If he could talk directly to legislators, he would tell them one thing: “Do something. Stop this.”
For now, Cahill said cardholders need to look out for themselves – and each other.
“If you have an elderly mother or neighbor … that might not know about how to use the Connect EBT app to lock their card, maybe you can help them,” she said.
She also encouraged victims to report thefts to their county job, family services offices, and the police.
“This does feel like a problem that the system, the government, needs to solve – our lawmakers need to step up and solve,” she said. “We should not be asking older adults and people with disabilities who receive these benefits to be on their own.”
