Lawmakers Have Questions About Clothing Voucher ‘Mess’

After a lengthy hearing Tuesday about the state’s school clothing allowance program, it’s still not clear how many needy children received back to school clothes or if any of the funds were instead used for beer and cigarettes, as Gov. Patrick Morrisey suggested when he called for an investigation. 

“Whenever the benefit is placed on an EBT card, that EBT benefit can be used at ATMs to pull any amount of that benefit, including up to the full amount off of the card,” Secretary Carl Ayers with the Department of Human Services (DoHS) told members of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability. “As you look at how those benefits are spent, once they are pulled into cash, I have no way to account for how the benefit was spent.” 

Ayers’ first day on the job was July 20, the same day the voucher program opened for applications. The program start was delayed by roughly three weeks because of uncertainty over the state’s federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding, and closed abruptly a week later when funds were depleted. 

In the backlash that followed, Morrisey announced his office had found that 49.5% of the $11.4 million provided for clothing was taken out in cash at ATMs.  

“We know when you have cash cards, when you can go to an ATM and take money out, yes, there’s absolutely going to be problems with it,” Morrisey said. “I don’t want a penny of the money that should go for school clothing to be spent for cigarettes, to be spent for beer, to be spent for all these things.”  

The funds are hard to track in part because there are other funds with cash benefits that are also loaded onto EBT cards – including Temporary Assistance For Needy Families funding and child support payments. And, once the clothing voucher funds – $200 per child – are loaded onto a card, the electronic tracking system categorizes the next $200 that are spent as voucher funds.  

Ayers told the committee the voucher funds were used in a variety of ways: 

• 37% were spent at multi-purpose retailers including Walmart and Target 

• 35.5% were withdrawn as cash from banks 

• 10.5% was spent at convenience stores such as Sheetz or ParMar 

• 10% was used at clothing retailers and shoe stores 

• 5.5% was spent at grocery stores 

• 2% was used at hotels and other retailers 

“And then there was a little bit under 1% that I would classify as being in the alcohol, tobacco, cannabis stores,” Ayers said. 

Voucher funds used to be distributed in paper vouchers, but the process was changed to EBT cards during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

“We didn’t make the decision,” Del. Evan Worrell, R-Kanawha, committee co-chair, said. “BFA, Family Assistance, made a decision to go from a voucher to cash assistance. And they even have on their website how to withdraw cash. The state has promoted that for the past four years. And so that’s why I’m trying to understand if the governor just became aware of this last week when it’s been a program for four years or if they knew about it.” 

Asked to name some of the smoke shops or tobacco stores that showed up, he rattled off what he said was not an exhaustive list: “Wanda’s Bar, Venus Lounge, Turf Motel Lounge, Tobacco A&N and Tobacco BA, Stogie’s Smoke Shops, Rox Beer, CJ’s Tobacco, Daddy Lou’s Pub and Pantry, Smoker Friendly, Trulieve, which is a cannabis dispensary, Hotspot, Max’s Place, and Mimi’s, which are all gaming parlors of some sort.” 

“So these point of sales, so let’s say at Wanda’s Bar, at CJ’s Liquor, at Venus Lounge, at a hotel somewhere. Those were ATM withdrawals, or they bought liquor and other items there?” Sen. Brian Helton, R-Fayette, committee co-chair, asked.  

“No, they would be ATM withdrawals,” Ayers said. 

Several lawmakers acknowledged concern about a cash program that can’t be tracked, but still expressed frustration that recipients were using the EBT cards as they have been directed to do. 

“What I take offense with is… you have a card that can be used for everything else. You’re saying that’s given as evidence that, ‘Hey, we’re seeing signs of abuse here,’” Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said. “It bugs me a lot because you got people typically in these situations who want out of it in the first place. And I know that because I’ve lived it.” 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle wanted to know what would be done to prevent future accusations and delays in the voucher program. 

“We are here because we’re in a mess,” said Del. Anitra Hamilton, D-Monongalia. “What we’re trying to do is prevent this from happening again. So moving forward, are there any discussions to make this process better so that we don’t put families in this predicament again?” 

Ayers told the committee there are already discussions underway in his office about what changes might be needed and how the program can operate in the future to ensure that parents get the clothing funds they need and the state can be sure those funds are being spent on clothing for kids.