Lakewood welfare: Half of children get assistance; families 'panic' after arrests

Payton Guion | Asbury Park Press

LAKEWOOD - Welfare is so widespread in the township that half of all children live in homes that receive some form of government aid, an Asbury Park Press analysis of census data found.

But one statistic stands out among all other municipalities in the state. There are 10,000 more children in households with married couples in Lakewood receiving food, income or state aid than the next closest town.

Of the 43,600 children under 18 years of age in Lakewood, 18,200 with married parents receive government assistance. Newark, the largest city in the state, is second with 7,800 children with married parents receiving aid, according to the Census Bureau's 2015, 5-year average American Community Survey. Newark has a total of 70,669 children, and 37,965 children in households receiving public assistance, the data show.

That poverty indicator is telling in two ways: Lakewood has a strong family tradition with many of it residents living in a two-parent household with young children, yet most of those families can't make ends meet without government help.

Following the FBI's public assistance fraud raids this week that saw the arrest of seven married couples with children, it may be an understatement that many township residents are in a "panic," as termed by one of the leaders of the majority Orthodox Jewish community. Up to 30 couples could be arrested by the time the probe is completed, according to one law enforcement source.

More: Lakewood welfare fraud: What we know so far

"It's absolute panic," said Rabbi Moshe Weisberg, a member of Lakewood's Vaad, or Jewish council, about the mood in the town after this week's arrests. "People are begging us for guidance."

In Lakewood, 21,600 children live in households that receive some form of public assistance, nearly half of the town's 43,600 children, according to federal data.

The millions of dollars doled out in the township is high, especially for a community that voted overwhelmingly Republican in 2016, with some districts voting 9 to 1 for Donald Trump. Conservative voters are traditionally for smaller government and less public aid, saying individuals need to be self-sufficient.

The town has more than 100,000 residents, up 15,000 from 2010, according to census records. The average Lakewood resident is 22.4 years old – making it one of the youngest towns in the state – and roughly 31 percent of people in town live under the poverty line, including retirees and single residents, according to the Census Bureau. The median household income in the town is just under $42,000, which is in the bottom 5 percent of N.J. towns, data shows.

Lakewood has a flourishing Jewish population, thanks in no small part to Beth Medrash Govoha, one of the largest yeshivas in the world, which now has about 6,500 students, according to Aaron Kotler, CEO of the yeshiva.

More: Lakewood welfare fraud: How did the scheme work?

Seven married couples were arrested in Lakewood this past week on charges of welfare fraud, including a well-known rabbi of a congregation. He and his wife are accused of taking more than $338,000 in public assistance they weren't entitled to receive. Five couples face state charges and the other two couples face federal charges. Combined, they are accused of stealing about $2 million in government assistance.

More: More Lakewood arrests: Raids continue in welfare fraud investigation

After the arrests, and considering so many Lakewood families receive some form of public assistance, the Vaad on Wednesday announced that it will hold seminars to educate residents about the rules for full financial disclosure when it comes to applying for and collecting public assistance.

"Federal and state social safety-net programs are meant for those in need, even those in need have rules and criteria that must be strictly followed," the Vaad said in its statement. "To deliberately bend a safety-net eligibility rule is stealing, no different than stealing from your friend or neighbor."

More: Lakewood welfare raids send some residents scrambling

Weisberg said that many young Jewish families collect public assistance as their families grow.

The men are often studying in yeshivas and have moderate incomes, if any income at all, he said. Census data shows that 3,302 people in Lakewood between the ages of 25 and 34 – 21.8 percent of everyone in that age range – are enrolled in school, most of those likely being yeshiva students.

Meanwhile, there is strong community pressure for men and women to have large families and send the children to private Jewish schools.

"The average family feels it an absolute necessity to send their children to private schools," Weisberg said, adding that large families are also a part of Jewish culture. "They really want to build a large family with lots of happy children.

"Financial considerations come second," he said.

To make ends meet, many of these families rely on public assistance, Weisberg said.

Duvi Honig, CEO of the Lakewood-based Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, said for many Jewish families, collecting public assistance is almost an inevitability.

"People have such overhead that they don't have a choice," Honig said.

More: Lakewood rabbi, others arrested in alleged million-dollar welfare fraud

Honig and Weisberg condemned the alleged assistance fraud but acknowledged that some residents are tempted to take more welfare than they're entitled to get.

"There are bad actors and bad apples," Weisberg said. "A lot of this is not, most of this is not."

Weisberg added that the vast majority of people reaching out to the Vaad after the arrests are concerned about what they termed as minor discretions in their public assistance applications, not people involved in a large-scale welfare fraud scheme.

Some of the minor discretions Weisberg mentioned are not reporting cash gifts or school tuition received from family members.

"These are families under stress," he said. "Regrettably, people are a little loose with it.

"Until the hammer falls, people are lax about it."

The hammer is expected to keep falling in Lakewood.

There will be more arrests on fraud charges in the coming weeks, said Al Della Fave, spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

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Payton Guion: 732-643-4245; pguion@app.com