News In Brief

For food stamps, you need photo-ID card in Bay State

In a move to cut down on fraud, Massachusetts food stamp recipients this week become the first in the nation required to present photo identification cards to get their coupons.

The state plan to photo-identify all 150,000 heads of households on food stamps - at a cost of $1.7 million - drew criticism from civil libertarians and welfare-rights advocates who said it would stigmatize the poor. But a state spokesman said there had been no major resistance to the program by food stamp recipients.