JP Morgan is the largest processor of food stamp benefits in the United States. JP Morgan has contracted to provide food stamp debit cards in 26 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. JP Morgan is paid for each case that it handles, so that means that the more Americans that go on food stamps, the more profits JP Morgan makes. Yes, you read that correctly. When the number of Americans on food stamps goes up, JP Morgan makes more money. In the video posted below, JP Morgan executive Christopher Paton admits that this is "a very important business to JP Morgan" and that it is doing very well. Considering the fact that the number of Americans on food stamps has exploded from 26 million in 2007 to 43 million today, one can only imagine how much JP Morgan's profits in this area have soared. But doesn't this give JP Morgan an incentive to keep the number of Americans enrolled in the food stamp program as high as possible?
There are just some things that are a little too "creepy" to be "outsourced" to private corporations. The JP Morgan executive in the interview below does his best to put a positive spin on all this, but it just seems really unsavory for a big Wall Street bank to be making so much money off of the suffering of tens of millions of Americans....
So if unemployment goes down will this ruin JP Morgan's food stamp business?
Well, apparently not. In the interview Paton says that 40% of food stamp recipients are currently working, and he seems convinced that there could be further "growth" in that segment.
So is this what America is turning into?
A place where tens of millions of the unemployed and the working poor crawl over to Wal-Mart and the dollar store every month to use the food stamp debit cards provided to them by JP Morgan?
It turns out that JP Morgan also provides child support debit cards in 15 U.S. states and they also provide unemployment insurance benefit debit cards in seven states.
Apparently states have found that they can save millions of dollars by "outsourcing" the provision of these benefits to big financial firms like JP Morgan.
So what happens if you have a problem with your food stamp debit card?
Well, you call up a JP Morgan service center. When you do this, there is a very good chance that you are going to be helped by a JP Morgan call center employee in India.
That's right - it turns out that JP Morgan is saving money by "outsourcing" food stamp customer service calls to India.
When ABC News asked JP Morgan about this, the company would not tell ABC News which states have customer service calls sent to India and which states have them handled inside the United States....
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.
JP Morgan has been moving some of these call center jobs back inside the United States due to political pressure, but this whole situation is a really good example of what the "global economy" is doing to middle class Americans.
Just try to imagine the irony - a formerly middle class American that has lost a job to outsourcing calls up to get help with food stamp benefits only to be answered by a call center employee in India.
Welcome to the global economy, eh?
But wait, there is more.
It has just been announced that JP Morgan has admitted that they wrongly foreclosed on over a dozen military families and that they have been overcharging "thousands" of other military families on their mortgages.
Ouch.
It is a really bad public relations move to mess with military families.
Is anyone over at JP Morgan even paying attention?
JP Morgan has also been one of the primary financial institutions involved in the foreclosure "robo-signing" scandal.
They just seem to be having all kinds of problems lately. But they are not alone.
The truth is that we have gotten to the point where big Wall Street banks such as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Morgan Stanley just have way, way too much power.
The biggest Wall Street financial institutions had no trouble begging for bailouts from the U.S. government during the financial crisis, but when the American people have needed a little grace and mercy from them they have been less than helpful.
So what do you think about how the big Wall Street banks have been behaving? Feel free to post a comment with your opinion below....
DC and Joe,
DC makes a very good point about how large banks and other corporations take over government functions — and that there is too little oversight over these contractors. Yes, a few dollars may be saved by outsourcing call centers to India, but within a couple years the contractors have figured out any number of ways to soak the government (and us taxpayers), with the result that costs are usually much higher than previously. Of course the contractors and their paid-off Congressmen and Senators portray themselves as white knights in shining armor, who are saving the country from the ‘lazy, worthless socialist’ government employees. And DC is also right in saying that the American attitude needs to change to “We’re all in this together.”
By the way. Unemployment Insurance compensation is not a government poverty program per say.
consider the fact that someone in my position worked and paid taxes including unemployment taxes for better than 40 years.
I have had to use it twice in my lifetime. Now being one of those times. I am not a charity case. Nor am I better fed than anyone else at the grocery store.
My benefits are paid electronicly, not in food stamps but in cash on a debit card. What the State of Arizona pays Chase, I have no idea. But again my situation like anyone else is that that after working my butt off for years and years I find that I have been downsized.
Some people should think before they let those bell clappers they call a mouth ring out.
OMG, the Irony. If your Food Card don’t work you have to plead with an Indian so you can eat tonight.
Could be worse I suppose, could be Afghans.
Facism is right. The United States is committing financial suicide, plain and simple.
. I am sad for America right now, but at the same time it is so disgusting as we are doing it to ourselves.
Wall Street and the financial sector in general has really sine the 1980′s been strengthening its death grip on society. It intensified in the 1990′s and 2000′s. After the crash, the rich have not seen hardly ANY difference in their salaries on Wall Street. It is unhealthy for the economy. BLS numbers show the shift in income upwards since the 1980′s. The coming inflation in the next year or two is going to make things even worse. The financial industry is just a big casino now days. Their function as an intermediary between investors and real businesses that need money is a joke in so many ways. The amount of trading that goes in at Goldman and other firms far outweighs the good that is sometimes done when businesses in need of capital receive money and in effect jobs are created etc.. that virtuous cycle thing. The U.S. is slowly deteriorating into a sewer of a society with most closer to the bottom than the top. It is sad…
Don’t get too dependent on the handout – it won’t last. Those who run this whole, evil “one world government” system want only one thing from the vast majority of us: They want us to die! “And except those days had been shortened, no flesh would have been saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” Matthew 24:22
Don’t forget that whenever the Fed prints new money, they lend it to JPM and the other banks at close to 0% interest. The banks then turn around and lend that money to the Fed Gov at 3%. So the banks are ripping off the taxpayers again, because the Fed Gov needs to borrow this money to pay for food stamps, unemployment benefits, etc. The taxpayers are paying the big banks interest on money that didn’t exist last year. Nice work if you can get it.
Here in New York, Chase Manhattan disburses the Unemployment Insurance debit cards. I think they process food stamps, too.
Normally, I prefer to see things done by private enterprise rather than government organizations. I guess I still do. After all, how “private” is any big financial company in this country if it’s been bailed out by Uncle Ben.
I opened an retirement account at WAMU because I seemed to get hands-on service from the company. When JP Morgan/Chase took over, I was suspicious that I would lose all my money to outside interests. Now that I know where the money grows, I will close my account with them and find somewhere else to put it. It’s just a little bit, yet dynasties are built and dynasties are destroyed bit by bit, piece by piece…
bookbabe
You stated.
“After all, how “private” is any big financial company in this country if it’s been bailed out by Uncle Ben.”
There is a flip side to that. How public is The US Government when one can see that they are controled by the big financial institutions.
Big fishies eat little fishies.
WaMu was eaten by JP Morgan.
Goldman Sachs? Bailed out by JP Morgan. (I may be mistaken, correct me if I’m wrong)
Get with the program, if you don’t wanna sleep with the fishies.
JPMorgan would be glad to show you an offer you can’t refuse. How ’bout a new bank loan?
(And yes, big banking is nothing short of a Mafia operation)
Yes, it could be worse, I suppose.
You could be at Wal-Mart at 11:58pm on January 31st, hoping the guy with the space heater in his cart will complete his purchase before 12:01 am February 1st, so your food stamp card kicks in just in time to buy some applesauce for your baby.
Life is good! (huh?!?!)
This is exactly the reason I only bank with local bankers. I buy as much of my goods and services from locally owned companies. I ask them where they bank when I am making purchases. I let them know how strongly I feel about locally owned banks and credit unions. Keeping your local economy strong is key in keeping your personal finacial health in tact. this past Christmas I bought a bed made in Wisconsin, a dresser made in Indiana, a Jaw Horse, sheets and even toys, socks and jewelery made in the USA. Every time I buy a product and am sent for technical support to another country I e-mail, write and call untill someone in upper management responds. I complain about the outsourcing until they can’t see straight or, as my kids say, bitch them into oblivion. If one tenth of American consumers would do the same thing we would flood thier lines until they were forced to do something about it. Come on America lets lead with our wallets while we still have them.
What is the difference in costs , between when food stamps were paper ‘stamps’ and this debit card system . . . Obviously an increase , just how much . . .
the reason why it’s in cards and not PAPER is, it is now digitized- it is no longer “money” it cannot be audited. The debit card creates “instant, magic money” that can be created instantly and taken away.. instantly. You can’t take food stamp paper monies out of circulation, but you CAN take a digital money out of circulation in an instant.
Michigan is one state that keeps the EBT/WIC call center within the state. At Crusecom, we provide 50+ jobs to support the program in a Rural town of about 20,000 during the winter and 40,000 during the summer. The impact of keeping it local and within Michigan has been huge. We brought the call center back from India and Mexico, creating badly needed jobs in our community. We have also created a technology footprint that would allow other States to keep it local.
What if conservatives, who preach small government, wake up and realize that our interventionist foreign policy provides the greatest incentive to expand the government?
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2k7xXxdUJ0
In a Corporocracy, ruled by corporate law, you must learn to park your patriotism at the door, with your common sense, before you enter! Read the definition of corporate law. Corporatists are, by American law, bound to serve the interests of their shareholder first!
In the 70′s Ford sold Pinto cars that were fire-bombs. The cost of changing the design of these cars exceeded the cost of paying off the claims for damages. Ford, and its corporate executives were forced by American law to allow many deaths of American proletariat, and were obliged to pay off claims, instead of changing the design, a more expensive route for the shareholders. All this, for a better bottom line, for a larger ROI, for the benefit of the shareholders! Sadly, wars are fought, rivers, lakes and streams are polluted, spoiled food is sold, dangerous drugs are prescribed, roads are built, bridges to nowhere appear, for the same reasons, and lobbyists deem these things so.
I actually work at a bank that provides these debit cards on behalf of various government agencies for all sorts of benefits; child support, unemployment benefits, TANF, veteran’s benefits, social security and SSI payments – you name it. Bash the banks if you want but the government could NOT mange these programs effectively and the cards DO save money for the government. I am not one to defend the government (or banks – even though I work in one) but the government workers have no clue how to do this and all that is involved. They do not know the card business. It is very complicated. All the disclosures, the regulations, the servicing, the processing of the transactions, honestly. btw – even though I work for a major bank I say let them fail if they get themselves in trouble – NO BAILOUTS! Yes I would likely be out of work but I care more about the future of this great Country. I can always get another job doing SOMETHING.
I am grateful jp morgan does this. Companies who make military equipment get paid lots of money to help ppl die. Jp morgan is helping a lot of ppl live. And the profit margin is probably minimal. I think its wrong for them to outsource to india though. The nature of the information is too personal
No surprise here! In NY state, Chase also handles the debit cards for Unemployment Insurance (if needed). It was a strange coincidence that I started to receive offers for Chase credit cards once I became a 99er! Talk about predatory lending! NY state sells the names or worse yet, Chase mines the data illegally. They’ll try to offer anyone a credit card once they feel the person is vulnerable enough to be tempted! I never send any applications back, since I’d likely be denied. But I’d be able to get free credit reports then.
this just in:
it also costs money to make those cards. the plasic, ink, hardware and software involved. do you think just because its the Gov that stuff is free? yes they get paid but they also spend the money it takes to produce the product. and no im not some ‘internet misinformation troll’ just someone using COMMON SENSE.
did the author of this article bother doing any fact checking/research about food stamp recipients rather than relying on dated and innacurate stereotypes? because as someone who is employed and on fs i resent the implication that i shop at “walmart and the dollar store”
Well, no cannonballs did fly, no rifles cut us down
No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground
No powder flash blinded the eye, no deathly thunder sounded
But just as sure as the hand of God, they brought death to my hometown
They brought death to my hometown, boys
No shells ripped the evening sky, no cities burning down
No army stormed the shores for which we’d die, no dictators were crowned
I awoke from a quiet night, I never heard a sound
The marauders raided in the dark and brought death to my hometown, boys
Death to my hometown
They destroyed our families, factories, and they took our homes
They left our bodies on the plains, the vultures picked our bones
So listen up, my sonny boy, be ready for when they come
For they’ll be returning sure as the rising sun
Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it ’til you’re done
Yeah, sing it hard and sing it well
Send the robber barons straight to hell
The greedy thieves who came around
And ate the flesh of everything they found
Whose crimes have gone unpunished now
Who walk the streets as free men now
Ah, they brought death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown, boys
Death to our hometown.