Pittsburgh families among those who go hungry after tens of thousands stolen in SNAP benefits in Pa.

PITTSBURGH — Thieves are using skimming devices to steal money loaded onto EBT cards, which help families afford putting food on their table.

From July 12, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2023, over 1,500 people in Pennsylvania submitted EBT fraud claims, totaling $820,000.

EBT cards haven’t been updated in close to 15 years. They still use just a magnetic strip instead of a chip to tap or insert. That leaves the funds on cards vulnerable to thieves, who know about this flaw and are taking advantage.

Miss Gwen is a Pittsburgh woman who had this happen to her. When we met Miss Gwen, she asked us not to show her face for privacy. She says she was taken aback when she went to buy groceries the morning after monthly funds were loaded onto her EBT card last winter.

“They said it’s declined and I’m like what do you mean it’s declined?” Miss Gwen recalls. “I said run it again and they did, and it was declined as well.”

The balance was zero dollars. She trekked down to her public assistance office in the bitter cold and snow and says that’s where a caseworker broke the news.

“My stamps had been hacked into by someone up in New York and they were stolen and used at three different delis,” Miss Gwen said. “I had been told there was nothing they could do.”

Miss. Gwen says the local office told her there was no way to reinstate her benefits quickly. A month’s worth of groceries to feed her were gone.

“Of course, I started crying and I was like this is hopeless you know?” Miss Gwen said. “They mean everything to me. They mean nutrition to me, as a result of me not having my benefits for the whole month, I lost about 15 pounds.”

She calls it a dark time when she rationed her food along with her beloved cat, King Tita’s food.

“I had to sacrifice a lot of times to let him eat, because I couldn’t afford food for both of us,” Miss. Gwen added. “There were times I had to get my medications co-pay wise, a little bit at a time.”

Ann Sanders, the Director of Public Benefits, Policy and Programs at local anti-hunger organization ‘Just Harvest’ took Miss Gwen’s case.

“Thieves have figured out a way to make money off of preying on the most vulnerable people in our community,” Ann Sanders tells 11 Investigates. “Stealing someone’s SNAP benefits is incredibly atrocious. You want that to be a rare situation - horribly shocking when you hear about it - unfortunately for too many of our neighbors, that is what they are living.”

Sanders says it’s unacceptable that it took her getting involved to get Miss Gwen’s benefits restored. Her money for food came five months too late.

“There’s really no room for error because someone like Miss Gwen goes a month without eating food when this happens.”

Advocates like Sanders say there’s an easy fix - updating EBT cards. Pennsylvania Senator, John Fetterman (D), co-sponsored a bipartisan bill in March that would require all EBT cards to have chips in them to prevent theft.

Sanders says there’s also a looming deadline.

“The policy that allows stolen benefits to be replaced, is expiring Oct. 1, 2024 - Congress needs to act,” Sanders added.

That means if Oct. 1 comes and goes, folks who rely on SNAP benefits to put food on the table won’t have money replaced if their funds are stolen by no fault of their own.

“At the end of the day you don’t want to tell someone ‘I don’t know what to tell you about eating,’ that’s a necessity,” Miss Gwen said.

The U.S. Dept. Agriculture says 86-percent of fraud claims received have had benefits restored.

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