Woman wins $700G, stays on food stamps

DETROIT -- Michigan lawmakers last year vowed to crack down when they heard an $850,000 lottery winner was buying groceries with food stamps. Now comes news of another player getting food on the public dime -- and the Legislature still hasn't passed a law to clamp down on the abuse.

"We were on this already, but now we have two cases. I'm hoping it will hurry us along," state Rep. Dave Agema, a Republican, said Thursday.

Amanda Clayton, 24, of Lincoln Park, chose a $700,000 lump sum, before taxes, last fall after winning a $1-million jackpot on "Make Me Rich!" a Michigan lottery game show. This week, a Detroit TV station asked her why she was still on food stamps.

"I thought that they would cut me off, but since they didn't I thought maybe it was OK because I'm not working," Clayton, a mother of two, told WDIV. "I feel that it's OK because I have no income, and I have bills to pay. I have two houses."

The state Department of Human Services said it was Clayton's responsibility to report her change in wealth within 10 days. She has been dropped from the program.

Authorities have yet to announce if Clayton will face charges. The penalty for welfare fraud over $500 can go as high as four years in prison. Clayton and her mother, Euline Clayton, did not immediately return messages.