BY RICK PLUTA
Michigan Public Radio Network
A report said 14 percent of Lottery winners in Michigan live in households with someone on public assistance. A year-old law requires the state to match people who win more than a thousand dollars playing the Lottery against a list of people in some public assistance programs.
Maura Corrigan is the director of the state Department of Human Services. She said that allowed to state to close more than 500 public assistance cases. But she said there are thousands more cases where people who won the Lottery can continue to collect. She said that's because federal laws don't permit the state to cut benefits in many cases.
"Personally, having looked at this, I think the best approach is the simplest. We ought to have a universal asset test for people." Corrigan said.
Corrigan said she will ask the Legislature to pass a law that would allow the state to recover money from Lottery winners who have some history of being on public assistance.
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