Michigan Kicks $4M Lottery Winner, 800 Others Off Food Assistance

State officials have kicked hundreds of Michigan Lottery winners off public assistance, including one person who continued to receive food assistance after winning a $4 million prize.

The review is allowed under a 2012 law that allowed a “lottery match” so the state’s Department of Human Services could cross reference lottery winners of prizes of $1,000 or more with public assistance rolls.

“It does not sit well with taxpayers when someone who has won millions of dollars continues to collect assistance because of federal loopholes that do not count these winnings as assets,” DHS director Maura Corrigan said in a statement.

It turns out that about 7,200 Michigan Lottery winners who have collected winnings totaling nearly $44 million in 2013 were receiving public assistance, The Lansing News/MLive reports.

Eighteen jackpots were worth $100,000 or more.

“These winnings add up,” Corrigan said. “While federal regulations prevent us from being able to discontinue certain types of benefits, we were able to close food assistance and Medicaid benefits for 810 recipients, saving taxpayers nearly $2 million.”

The 2012 bill that gave Michigan officials the authority include lottery winnings in a means test for public assistance followed public outrage over some high profile cases where lottery players won millions of dollars, but continued on the public dole.

Among them were Larry Flick of Bay City, who won $2 million in a “Make Me Rich!” game, and a $1 million winner, Amanda Clayton of the metro Detroit area, who won a $1 million prize and continued to received $200 a month in food assistance.

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• Some critics argue the “lottery match” is too broad; others say it doesn’t go far enough. What do you think?

Clayton, also a winner in the “Make Me Rich!” game, said at the time that she took a $500,000 payout and bought a new home and car, then told Detroit television station WDIV that she was struggling to make ends meet, according to a Christian Science Monitor report.

“I thought they would cut me off, but since they didn’t, I thought maybe it was OK because I’m not working,” Clayton said at the time. “I feel that it’s OK because I have no income, and I have bills to pay. I have two houses.

The report came out when Michigan’s unemployment rate was around 8.5 percent. In Detroit, the March 2012 jobless rate was 17.9 percent.

At the time, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, said the situation was “outrageous.”

“At a time when so many out-of-work Michigan families are in real need of assistance, it’s outrageous for people to cheat and defraud the system like this,” Stabenow said in a statement.

There are currently at least four bills pending in the state Legislature that would give Michigan officials the authority to stop other public assistance streams to lottery winners. Changes at the federal level would also lead to reform, Corrigan in the statement this week.

Michigan Lottery photo

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