US Food Stamps Create Jobs & in India ....ABC NEWS

ABC News
Food Stamps Create Jobs& in India
Several States With High Unemployment Are Outsourcing Food Stamp Services
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit

April 29, 2009—

Michele Brown has seen Americans' struggles with jobs first hand. She lives in hard-hit Florida, spent 20 years in the real estate business and recently had her days as a nanny cut back after her boss had his own hours reduced.

But nothing prepared her for what happened one day when she called a toll-free line to inquire about her food stamps.

"The woman who answered the phone -- it's not like she wasn't nice or anything -- but it was kind of evident that she wasn't in the States," Brown said.

It turns out the woman was at a JP Morgan Chase call center in India.

"That really put me over the edge," said Brown, 52, of Jupiter, Fla. "It's not right because we need the work here. People are in a bad way here."


Americans have never liked the idea of jobs going overseas. But for many, it's more offensive when taxpayer dollars -- including those in the federal stimulus plan -- go to create those jobs. And when those jobs deal with food stamps, unemployment insurance and other public benefits, well forgot irony, to many it's just downright plain insulting.

Unemployment in Florida is now 9.7 percent.

"Why is the state of Florida sending these jobs away?" Brown asked. "The thing that really iced it for me, I knew that JP Morgan had gotten bailout funds."

So she called her local politicians and then she reached out to her local newspaper, the Palm Beach Post. The paper did a story two weeks ago about the $50 million Florida paid JP Morgan in the last three years to administer the food stamps distribution.

Those services include 24-hour customer-service call centers. Some of those calls were answered in Bangalore and Gurgaon, India. Others were taken at two U.S. call centers.

The next day the head of the state's Department of Children and Families said something needed to change.

"I don't want any calls going to India," he said. "We need to take care of this."

The state now has a commitment from JP Morgan to move all of its calls to the United States, according to Judi Spann, a spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families.

Florida isn't alone in sending its customer service calls overseas.

There are three major companies that provide debit cards to food stamp recipients: JP Morgan Chase; eFunds, which is now part of Fidelity National Information Services; and Affiliated Computer Services or ACS.

JP Morgan Chase Sends Calls to India

JP Morgan is the only one today still operating public-assistance call centers overseas. The company refused to say which states had calls routed to India and which ones had calls stay domestically. That decision, the company said, was often left up to the individual states.

ABC News canvassed the country, asking states about their call centers. Often state officials overseeing the programs had no idea, despite past controversies, where their calls were going.

JP Morgan provides food stamp debit cards in 26 states and the District of Columbia. It also provides child support debit cards in 15 states and unemployment insurance cards in seven states.

More at.........

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/story?id=7452561&page=1

Because we should really get to know that person.

Let's outsource the fucking food stamp program to a foreign country..... rather than employ Americans..... which results in more Americans being on food stamps.

And all of this done by a fucking treasonous Wall Street criminal bank (Chase)that's responsible for a big part of the economic BULLSHIT destroying this country.

stimulus money...which will ultimately be paid for by higher taxes on the 2 or 3 Americans that still have jobs.

Talk about stupid.

Honest to kee-riste.

..we may see a change.

In FLorida.. (a State that is basically bankrupt).. they (State Legislature) just increased license plates from $40 to $90 a year. Driver's License fees will double and they raised Hurricane insurance 20%. And they are going to charge young children $10 a year to fish in the parks.

How are people without jobs going to absorb these increases... duh?

Our County Commissioner, just the other day, made a statement to the media... "If we can't find the money for our budget.. we will increase the property taxes.. even though the value of the homes have fallen 40% this year. "Let them eat cake" if I ever heard it.

Politicians DON'T GET IT. (They don't have to) They live in a taxpayer funded free-ride of leather chairs, fancy hotels and meetings where the party never ends.

IF they have to send jobs to India... or utilize cheap Mexican labor.. so be it.

It will only end when the pitchforks are sharpened.

:kick:

programs - cut out the middleman, save bucks, supply govt jobs w/ bennies.

Bad enough that it's privatized - but for the jobs to be shipped overseas is a double abomination.

what J.P.Mogan is all about.......