The Iowa Senate is looking to make sure that Iowa’s welfare programs aren’t being abused by those that don’t need them.

District 12 Senator Amy Sinclair says that there is a bill currently making its way through the Senate that would implement an electronic verification program to make sure applicants for welfare aren’t hiding assets. She tells Raccoon Valley Radio that this is the main reason for the bill.

“We have a bill that gets at electronic verification of assets, so that we know the right people are getting the benefits, so that we know that it’s fixed income and children are the ones benefiting from that taxpayer-funded benefit. We know that a couple of years ago – three years ago, four years ago – the state of Iowa was fined by the federal government because we were overpaying, underpaying. Our expenditures were wrong. And that’s all based off of not being able to properly verify assets and properly verify income and make sure the right people are enrolled and receiving the benefits.”

Sinclair adds that using an electronic verification system like what is being proposed would help reduce the number of errors and delays that are seen when those checks are done manually by people.