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California state legislature is moving to passing Bill AB1407 backed by AT&T, which could see the demise of the Lifeline Program in the state of California.

This bill essentially ends the Lifeline Program and gives AT&T control of the Lifeline Program. This could mean that the 1.2 million Californian residents who are currently dependent upon the Lifeline Program to provide their telecommunications access could be cut off and left without any connection to society, healthcare access, or a means to contact family and friends.

The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board has jumped to the defense of the poor inhabitants of California, stating that the passing of Bill AB 1407 would leave these residents with no protection. The Greenlining Institute wrote that AB 1407 “undermines Lifeline’s essential guarantee of affordable phone service, effectively replacing that guarantee with a coupon.”

Without access to the Lifeline Program’s free mobile phone and subsidized landline offerings, 1.2 million of California’s poorest residents will, quite frankly, be left in the dark. With no way of affording telecommunications, this population will fall behind society and be unable to further themselves, either through obtaining healthcare easily or even finding footing to get themselves a second chance. The Lifeline Program was put into place in order to provide residents such as these a chance to find their way in a tough economic time. By taking away this opportunity, these people will have very few options.

AT&T wants to essentially destroy state legislature of the Lifeline Program. This opens up the Lifeline Program and any phone subsidy programs for the poor to being dismantled, piece by piece, and leaving the poor with no means of affordable telecommunications access.

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During the second quarter of 2013, mobile phone subscriptions for T-Mobile were at 350,000, which is an all-time low for this mobile phone powerhouse. The reason for this substantial drop is because of the Lifeline Program and the Federal Communications Commission’s new efforts to prevent fraud and duplicate accounts that have been occurring within the program.

Nearly 1 million Lifeline account holders’ accounts had to be withdrawn and/or cancelled during this time because T-Mobile was unable to prove that these applicants were actually eligible for the free mobile phone. The Lifeline Program provides free mobile phones for eligible American citizens; eligibility is defined by living at or below 135% the poverty line or being a participant in any of the state or federal-run social assistance programs, depending on which state you are a resident in.

While the contract subscribers for mobile phones with T-Mobile grew by 1 million, the pre-paid subscribers section shrank by 1.25 million subscribers, as most of them were ineligible Lifeline account holders. Ineligibility is the inability to prove that the account holder does meet the strict guidelines of the Lifeline Program.

The Federal Communications Commission has, in response to the public outcry of the amount of money being wasted due to fraudulent activity and fake accounts, cracked down on the policing and regulation of the rules for the Lifeline Program. This means that the FCC has created a central database that holds sensitive information, such as addresses and social security numbers of all Lifeline account holders. This will ensure that there will be no duplicate account holders anymore as there will be a database that is accessible to all companies that are part and parcel to the Lifeline Program. In addition, the FCC has been going through any and all suspicious account holders with a fine-toothed comb and performing stringent audits to all private mobile carrier companies that have been signing up over $5 million US dollars’ worth of subscribers to the Universal Service Fund.

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Senator Jeff Sessions has written a letter to Mignon Clyburn, the Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, outlining his concerns about the lack of regulation in the Lifeline Program.

The Lifeline Program provides affordable telecommunication access to those who are living at or below 135% of the poverty line or are participants in other state or federal-run social assistance programs. The Lifeline Program is designed to provide equal access to what we consider to be a human right – telecommunications that provide access to emergency health services and connection to society at large.

However, Senator Sessions is concerned about the amount of waste due to fraud that is occurring within the Lifeline Program, a fact that is due to a severe under-policing and under-regulating of this program.

“The original intent of the Lifeline program was to provide discounted, subsidized phone service to qualifying low-income consumers so that they would have a way to contact employers, family members and emergency services,” wrote Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. His concern is the fact that now the Lifeline Program has run up a $2.1 billion dollar bill, and it seems that much of that is due to the duplicate accounts and the financial incentives that many of the private mobile carriers are receiving – getting rich off the back of the middle-class who are simply trying to support a service to their less-fortunate fellow Americans.

Sessions is concerned that the basic and fundamental rules are not being enforced or governed properly, which is leading to the millions and millions of dollars of waste due to fraud.

“The failure to check applicants’ eligibility might be one of the reasons the Lifeline program has more than doubled in recent years – from $822 million in 2008 to over $2 billion in the latest report from the Universal Services Administrative Company,” he wrote.

Senator Sessions wants Clyborn to report on exactly what the FCC is doing to ensure that there is appropriate regulation of the rules for eligibility of the Lifeline Program. He wants to make sure that the FCC is being held accountable for all their actions and that any fraudulent activity or any holes in the program are being brought to the FCC’s attention and that they are doing something about it in an efficient and timely manner.

He feels that it is imperative that all public programs are effectively managed and that any misuse of public funds is reported and rectified. This is of utmost importance to public interests in any program such as the Lifeline Program.

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In an effort to address rampant fraud and program abuse that have troubled the Lifeline Assistance program, the state of Georgia has passed a resolution to institute a five dollar fee that will be applied to the free cell phone service provided under the Lifeline Assistance program in the state of Georgia.   Currently, Lifeline Assistance program participants in Georgia pay nothing and receive a free basic cell phone and up to 250 free cell phone minutes a month.  Unfortunately, there are a large number of participants that abuse the program by applying for multiple cell phones and/or lie on their applications in order to qualify for the program.  The Georgia Public Service Commission recently passed – the fee mandate 3-5 and, if left uncontested, the five dollar fee will be put into effect come January 2014.

The Lifeline Assistance program is a government assistance program, which provides participants with a subsidized or free cell phone and up to 250 minutes of free cellular airtime.  The government provides subsidies to telecom operators that take part in this program. Participants that need more than 250 minutes of wireless time a month can opt to pay for optional top up minutes available for a monthly charge, yet up until recently, Georgia residents could receive the 250-minute plan free of any charge.

This change is highly controversial. The CTIA, a telecom industry association of wireless companies, claims that it is illegal for the government to dictate what a wireless company charges its consumers. Should the fee go uncontested, the CTIA plans to file a lawsuit challenging the legality of the resolution.

Opponents of the Georgia resolution also believe that the fee would greatly burden the millions of Americans living poverty who currently take part in the Lifeline Assistance program.

Qualifying participants of the program include people who participate in a qualifying government assistance program, such as Welfare or Section 8, or those living at or below the 135% Federal Poverty Guidelines. For example, a four-person household would have to have a total annual household income annually at or below $23,550 to qualify for the Lifeline program.

To these participants, many of whom are homeless and without a job, $5 a month would be very difficult to come by – especially after paying for basic necessities such as food. In March, California eliminated its $2.50 monthly fee to ease the financial burden of its eligible applicants.

The Lifeline Assistance Program Faces Major Challenges

One glaring question that continues to be raised by consumers, vendors and policymakers alike is, how many Lifeline Assistance participants are truly in need of the Lifeline Assistance program?  This question is further complicated with rampant allegations of abuse and program fraud, in which participants who do not qualify for the program receive free phone service.

In an effort to decrease to Lifeline Assistance program fraud and abuse, the FCC passed Lifeline Assistance program reforms, which are expected to save over two billion dollars over the next three years by eliminating more than 400,000 fraudulent duplicate Lifeline Assistance subscriptions.

The FCC also recently brought charges against multiple wireless companies for taking advantage of the Lifeline Assistance program. Fines of up to $14 million, as well as repayment of duplicate funds were required by various companies for allegedly encouraging multiple applicants within a single household  to sign up for service and for not properly verifying eligibility of all of their applicants.

Making The Lifeline Assistance Program Work

The FCC’s 2012 Lifeline Assistance program reform, the crackdown on Lifeline Assistance telecom operators, and the $5 monthly fee that Georgia has implemented are anticipated to help clean up vast amounts of program fraud and abuse that has plagued this program in recent years.

The program was originally designed to provide economically disadvantaged citizens access to basic telecommunication necessities, such as emergency services like 911, healthcare, work, and social services.  While many Americans view the use of a cell phone as a luxury, staying connected today’s technologically driven fast paced world has become a necessity.

Applying for and holding down a job has become nearly impossible without a phone; in fact, many companies will not even consider an applicant without a reliable method of communication. In the case of many freelance jobs, the use of a phone is required for acquiring prospective clients. What’s more, there have been numerous cases of deaths because of an inability to contact emergency services. The program was designed to mitigate some of poverty’s burdens, and impoverished families are very reliant on it.

Although Lifeline is well-intentioned, it was clear that the program was in need of further reform.  The FCC’s program reform, recent crackdown on bad Lifeline Assistance telecoms and now Georgia’s five dollar fee are all expected to save the program billions of dollars.  Although the monthly charge may be a hardship on some families, for most it is manageable. It is also a disincentive to break the rule which stipulates that there be no more than one free cell service per household.

In addition, a database of Lifeline participants is in the process of being compiled. The database will help locate and reject duplicate subscriptions as well as help verify eligibility. Absent a central database accessible by the various Lifeline Assistance cell phone carriers, applicants can easily abuse the program by applying for multiple accounts. Right now, it’s quite easy to apply for a free cell phone from one of these different service providers, however in theory, after the database is in place, wireless companies will have the ability to see if an applicant has already applied for free phone service with another company and reject the application.

The FCC anticipates heavier eligibility restrictions to be implemented this upcoming year. This fee and the other changes that will take place in the application process, will help Lifeline greatly reduce waste by more effectively combating the problem of program fraud and and abuse.

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The Lifeline Program provides free mobile phones to eligible Americans all around the United States. This free mobile phone comes with free talk minutes and free texts every month, although eligibility varies from state to state. People must prove that they are living at or below 135% of the poverty line or are an active participant (or eligible to become an active recipient) of any state or federal-run social assistance programs, such as Food Stamps.

Recently, it has come to light that the Lifeline Program is costing the American people over $2.1 billion US dollars. It has also come to light that much of this is due to waste from fraudulent activity.

One of the main rules of the Lifeline Program is that there is only one free mobile phone allowed per household. However, many applicants were taking advantage of the initially quite lackadaisical system and applying for two, three, sometimes more than four free mobile phones by providing fake social security numbers or addresses.

Soon, the private mobile carriers began to follow suit, using overly aggressive marketing schemes in order to increase their Lifeline applications and receive their subsidy checks from the Universal Service Fund to turn a profit off the backs of a program that was to provide a service to the poor. These private mobile carriers were handing out free mobile phones in-person and to walk-in applicants without background checks or approvals of the applicants.

Soon, this Lifeline Program began to cost a lot of money – in the billions, in fact – due to over-funding, too little oversight or policing of the rules and with very strange and assertive marketing tactics.

The Federal Communications Commission began to toughen up on the rules and amended many of the systems in place. The FCC added a central database in order to keep track of everyone’s social security numbers and addresses in order to prevent duplicate accounts. The FCC made sure that all applicants had to re-apply every year in order to report on any changes in financial status or addresses and that if a Lifeline phone has not been in use for 60 consecutive days, it would automatically be deactivated and cancelled.

With all of this in place, there is still a lot of fraud going on. So a journalist decided to go on a mission in order to see how easy it would be for her to apply for a Lifeline mobile phone, even with the new amendments to the application process. Please keep in mind that this journalist lives well above the poverty line and has absolutely no business being approved for this program.

This journalist discovered that one could apply for a Lifeline free mobile phone wherever one can apply for Food Stamps. The journalist failed to show eligibility for any other social assistance program and did not have a Medicaid card (in fact, she showed that she had private health insurance that her company paid for) and lo and behold – she was signed up for a free mobile phone through Lifeline.

The journalist received her free mobile phone in the mail and was (incorrectly) informed that the Lifeline Program allows for you to receive a free mobile phone from every different carrier that is participating in the Lifeline Program. As we all know, that simply is not true – you are allowed one free mobile phone period. No matter which carrier you received it from.

The journalist was able to sign up again, several times, in fact, for more free mobile phones simply by stating that her free mobile phone had not yet arrived in the mail and asking if she could she re-apply? And the representatives from various different mobile carriers allowed her to do so, entered her information, and signed this journalist up for several free Lifeline mobile phones.

What was even more disturbing was that at one location, she was able to be signed up for a mobile phone even though she was speaking, very loudly, on her own Smartphone at the same time as applying for a free mobile phone. The Lifeline Program is to be for those who cannot already afford their own means of telecommunications. Clearly, there needs to be some more policing of policies and regulations in the application process. There also needs to be better training within the very system.

The journalist successfully applied seven different times for a free mobile phone. Since receiving her free Lifeline phones, this journalist has tried to contact all the carriers in order to inform them of their follies; she received no response to her information.

The incentives for handing out as many free mobile phones to as many individuals, whether they deserve it or not, is actually built right into the program. The private carrier companies are getting rich off the backs of the middle class while the poor are being given a bad name for trying to have a second chance in life. There is something wrong with this system altogether. The FCC needs to become more aggressive with how they police the Lifeline Program. The private carrier companies need to have their incentives shut down and be brought to justice. Or at the very least, they should take responsibility for their actions.

The Lifeline Program is not meant to be a fraudulent program that is wasting our money. It is meant to provide hope, safety, and a second chance to those needy Americans who need it. Don’t let this horrible management of a good program allow the Lifeline Program to get shut down.

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The Lifeline Program provides free mobile phones with free talk minutes and free texts every month to eligible Americans. Eligibility can mean many things, but in the case of the Lifeline Program, people must prove that they are living at or below 135% of the poverty line or are a participant in another state or federal-run social assistance program, such as food stamps or social housing assistance. Even more importantly, the Lifeline Program provides free mobile phones to those living in shelters, those on the streets, and those who are disabled or elderly and are unable to stay in contact with health workers or family otherwise. Is this a luxury or is this something that every human being has a right to have?

Many right-wing politicians are looking to end the Lifeline Program, citing such charges as waste of taxpayers’ money and fraud. What needs to be made clear is that the Lifeline Program is not using taxpayers’ funds. It is using the Universal Service Fund, which charges every paying client’s phone bills a few dollars every month in order to go toward funding this Lifeline Program.

If this program were to become obsolete, there would be millions of Americans who would be unable to call a doctor, or take a call back for a potential job interview, or wouldn’t even have a chance at a better life without the use of these free mobile phones. This would place millions and millions of Americans at an even larger disadvantage, particularly in this trying economic time.

Although the rules vary between states, families can receive up to $12 US Dollars off every monthly phone bill if they are eligible for the Lifeline Program.

Virgin Mobile and Assurance Wireless provides about 4 free hours per month in talk time and 250 texts per month with their partnership in the Lifeline Program. The average consumer uses over 6 hours of talk time and over 1000 texts per month. Our society has moved toward a cellular age where it is taken for granted that everyone has a mobile phone. From job interviews to emergency 9-1-1 phone calls, our safety and security in this world is dependent upon the use of a mobile phone.

Verizon Mobile even participates in a program called Hopelines, which provides battered women’s shelters a certain number of free mobile phones, depending upon their needs at that time. Without programs such as this, providing affordable access to telecommunications, many of the nations’s disenfranchised would fall through the cracks. And unfortunately, these cracks often lead to very violent situations that are extremely difficult to get out of and could be the difference between life and death.

The Lifeline Program is not a luxury. It is providing access to something that is a fundamental human right – the access to safety and security. Please support the Lifeline Program and all that it represents.

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A meeting was held between the Federal Communications Commission and several consumer groups to discuss the various ways to diminish or prevent the amount of waste due to fraud within the Lifeline Assistance program.

The Lifeline Assistance program provides free mobile phones with free talk minutes and free texts per month to eligible Americans. These applicants must prove that they are living at or below 135% of the poverty line or are already a recipient in another state or federal-run social assistance program, such as Food Stamps or Social Housing Assistance.

The three consumer groups, The Community Action Partnership, Consumer Action and the National Consumers League, and the FCC, believe that it is unfair that the American poor are constantly the ones under scrutiny with fraud. They all got together and had a news conference stating that they feel that low-income Americans should not be the ones to blame or should not be under constant fire in the media as the criminals in this situation, always looking to take the system for all that it has.

It has come to light, particularly with hidden cameras and actors, that it is many of the private mobile carrier companies that have been over-aggressive in their marketing, wanting to hit certain financial targets by handing out as many free Lifeline Assistance phones as possible, knowing that they will be receiving a subsidy from the Federal Communications Commission with each application they approve.

The FCC and the consumer groups believe that creating a lag time between the accepting of an application for a free mobile phone and the distribution of the mobile phone to the approved applicant would deter many of the private mobile carrier companies from simply handing out free mobile phones left, right, and center.

The FCC has responded by re-examining the Lifeline Program and making several amendments within, such as:

• Creation of a National Lifeline Accountability Database in order to prevent duplicate accounts and fake social security numbers or addresses
• Automatic De-Enrollment of Lifeline participants who fail to use their phones for more than 60 consecutive days
• Annual re-verification for all Lifeline Participants in order to keep track of any changes in financial status, home address, or any other personal information that is pertinent to eligibility

These changes have shown a massive improvement in the rates of fraud and waste with the Lifeline Assistance program. However, it seems that much of the waste is coming from private mobile carriers who are handing out phones for free at drop-in centers around the United States. The FCC and the consumers groups feel that it would be most prudent to stop in-person distribution of free mobile phones so that mobile carriers are unable to contribute to this sort of fraud.

Although this proposal is now pending, the FCC would have to ensure that approved Lifeline applicants would be receiving their free mobile phone packages through the US Mail or any other approved postal service after their eligibility has been officially verified according to the FCC’s rules and regulations of eligibility.

The Lifeline Assistance program provides affordable telecommunication services to the elderly, the poor, the disabled, and the homeless all across America. This provides access to safety and security, to emergency medical services, and to the ability to search for and keep employment in this tough economic time. Since the credit crash of 2008, there have been millions of Americans who have been left in dire straits due to the economic situation, and never before has a program such as this been so well needed.

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Certain consumer groups would like the Federal Communications Commission (The FCC) to create stricter rules on the Lifeline Program. This program provides free mobile phones with free talk minutes and free texts every month to eligible American citizens.

Eligibility is, of course, the biggest issue with this phone. People need to be able to prove that they are living at 135% of the poverty line (or below) or is a participant in one of the other state or federal-run social assistance programs, such as Food Stamps or the Free School Lunches Program, depending on the state that one is living in. However, many incidences of the fraud that has been rampant in the Lifeline Program has been a result of very loosely regulated approval systems within the Lifeline Program that has allowed many participants to become approved even though they do not meet those criteria.

Consumer groups also believe that by not handing out the free mobile phones on the same day that potential participants hand in their application process would allow for time for a background check on these applicants. This would prevent the amount of wasted free mobile phones that are being taken away by non-eligible applicants simply because there is no leeway between the application form being handed in and the phone being given out. How can the participants’ backgrounds be thoroughly checked and approved in a situation like that?

The American public has dubbed the Lifeline Program the “Obama Phone,” although that is incorrect. The Lifeline Program was started during the Reagan Administration in the mid 1980s and should actually be called the Reagan Phones. The Lifeline Program currently provides savings of about $10 per applicant in discounts every month.

Lifeline gained negative press when it was discovered that there were millions of dollars in waste and fraud with applicants being approved for more than one phone by providing false home addresses or false social security numbers. There were even hidden cameras showing the mobile phone carriers distributing phones for free even though the applicants bragged about selling their phones for drugs, cash, or designer handbags. These paid actors did everything they could in order to signal to the mobile carrier employees who were handing out the Lifeline free mobile phones that they would not be using the phones for themselves – that they would be taking advantage of this philanthropic program in order to make some cash on the black market. What was surprising was that the employees turned a blind eye, even saying things such as ‘’I don’t judge’’ and then handing the paid actor a free mobile phone right then and there. This shows a blatant disregard for the services that the Lifeline Program provides and a sole consideration for making a buck by any means possible. Forcing a lag time between the application and the receiving of the free mobile phone would discourage both companies from handing out free mobile phones before approval and applicants from falsifying their personal information as there would be a full background check done.

“Low-income consumers aren’t the problem,” said John Breyault, a vice president at the National Consumers League. “The problem is overly-aggressive marketing by a handful of companies. A ban on same-day distribution would both prevent and detect abuses while ensuring that wireless Lifeline supported service remains available for those who qualify.”

We hope that with some tweaking of the free mobile phone hand-out process within the Lifeline Program, much of the fraud can be stopped, both by individuals and by overzealous private mobile carrier companies.

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TracFone Wireless, one of the main providers of free mobile phones in the Lifeline Program, has partnered up with SafeLink Health Solutions in order to launch a new program that enables Medicaid health plans to be more involved in the health and welfare of the participants of the program.

There are hopes that this partnership will increase re-enrollment in Medicaid, increase member satisfaction and improve overall quality of Medicaid and Lifeline. This means that eligible Americans will be provided a free TracFone Wireless mobile phone with free 250 talk minutes and texts per month in addition to receiving Voxiva’s evidence based health programs via text/SMS.

Voxiva’s program provides up to date information on vaccinations or current healthcare topics, with reminders about recommended screenings or health exams. Recipients will receive individualized recommendations and health information based on their needs.

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Senator Claire McKaskill has recently come under fire for her seemingly contradictory responses to recent communications’ regulations that are affecting her and her fellow Americans.

McKaskill has shown extreme sympathy for those wealthy American business men and women who are forced to shut down their tablets before airplane take-off as this seriously hinders their ability to continue their businesses while in-flight.

However, ask her about providing free mobile phones to the country’s needy and she is 100% opposed to the program.

How can a Senator have such opposing ideas for the rights to communication? McKaskill understands what it’s like to be wealthy and own an iPad, yet she doesn’t understand what it is like to be poor and actually not have the ability to afford a simple landline for communication.

McKaskill recently sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission requesting that the Lifeline Program be shut down.

Here is what she wants to have discontinued. The Lifeline Program is a social service that provides free mobile phones for the needy Americans who could otherwise not afford a means of communications due to their financial status. The Lifeline Program was started in the 1980s under the Reagan Administration in order to address the divide between those who could afford access to telecommunications and those who could not. The Lifeline Program originally provided free landline services to those living in rural communities due to poor infrastructure and fewer companies providing inflated cost services to those living outside of the city. The Federal Communications Commission wanted to ensure that all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, financial status and creed were able to have affordable access to telecommunications.

Since then, the Lifeline Program has provided millions of American households with a reduced cost or free landline. Eligibility for the program comes in the form of proving that one is living at or below 135% of the poverty line or that one is a recipient of a social assistance program, such as Food Stamps.

When Hurricane Katrina came and dealt her blow, hundreds of thousands of Americans were left without electricity or homes. The Bush Administration made an amendment to the Lifeline Program in order to add mobile phones so that those who were stranded or without electricity and running water could at the very least have a mobile phone to contact emergency services or search for their friends and loved ones.

The Lifeline Program never amended that rule and since then, nearly 20 million Americans are making use of the free mobile phone that is provided if one is a participant of the Lifeline Program.

Many right-wing politicians are angry at the amount of fraud that is occurring, a fact that the Federal Communications Commission is well aware of and is working overtime in order to correct. There are currently audits of companies and of suspicious accounts that have come up with over a quarter million of duplicate phone accounts that have been cancelled. By 2014, the FCC estimates that there will be hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars saved due to these advances in regulation and moderation of the Lifeline Program.

The Lifeline Program provides safety and security for those in America who are disenchanted, disenfranchised, homeless or financially desperate. To cut this program would be to cut the country at the knees, economically. There are millions of able-bodied Americans who are searching for work but are at a disadvantage because they are unable to afford a means of communication. This means that they are less likely to find jobs or to respond to their callbacks for interviews. This means that they will be less likely to re-join the productive population of America and this would perpetuate the issue – the divide between the haves and have not’s.

McKaskill wants to divert funds from the Lifeline Program into the E-Rate Program, which would provide high speed internet into educational institutions. This is a great program and would allow our education system to catch up to the rest of the world, technologically, but should this be replacement for the Lifeline Program? Both programs work hand in hand to bring forth a digitally aware and connected population, which provides job opportunities and a population that is more competitive in the working world today. This is a good thing on both fronts – but why should we have to choose between one or the other?

McKaskill wants to reverse the ruling on the ban of electronic devices during take-off and landing of airplanes. She believes this is such an important aspect for access to communications for passengers on planes, and yet she believes that poor people in America do not have the right to have a mobile phone. This is contradictory at best, hypocritical at worst.

Please support the Lifeline Program. Let Senator McKaskill know that she is being unreasonable.

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