Your Phone Bill Helps Pay For Phones For Others

Some people who are on government assistance or have a low income are eligible to receive a free cell phone, but Watchdog10 found some who have as many as four of the free phones.

Everyone who receives a bill for their phone gets a small charge to help the needy receive free phones, 10 Investigates’ Paul Aker reported.

The only rule is that there is only one phone per household.

A woman who requested anonymity because she has a low income said that she heard of people receiving more than one phone if they listed multiple addresses.

Another former phone recipient, Stephanie Norris, said that she has also seen instances of the system getting abused.

“My friend’s mother had gotten her one (phone),” Norris said.  “Her brother needed one.  So he just asked us to use her grandmother’s address and sent one there.”

A St. Louis television station found a man giving free cell phones to anyone he could find.  Supposedly, people have to show their government assistance cards to prove they are eligible for the phones, but the system is obviously flawed, Aker reported.

The station spoke with several people who had multiple phones.  One man said he had four of them.

“There’s a question of waste, fraud and abuse,” said Rep. Bob Latta, a Bowling Green Republican, who sits on a committee that oversees the program.

Latta said that a recent audit showed 270,000 people were cheating the system for a total cost to taxpayers of $33 million, just this year.

“You're look at about a third of the folks out there that fall into the category of waste, fraud and abuse,” Latta said.

According to Latta, the federal government is now working to tighten the service.

A Federal Communications Commission audit into the program just showed at least 26,000 people in Ohio alone have more than one of the phones.

The organization that runs the program said that it would take at least several months to start fixing the problem.

Stay with 10TV News and 10TV.com for additional information.