Verizon Drops Customers From Low-Income Program

Efforts to reduce fraud in the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program that subsidizes phone bills for low-income Americans may be resulting in a large number of eligible customers being dropped from its rolls.

In 2012 the FCC passed new regulations designed to reduce fraud in the program, including a requirement that all beneficiaries certify their eligibility annually. That led to significant declines in enrollment. But this year’s drop was especially large. It appears that a new certification procedure, as well as a new identity-verification system, both introduced in 2014, are causing problems. New York state and city lawmakers, among them City Council Member Margaret Chin, state Sen. Daniel Squadron and Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, on April 17 sent letters to Verizon and the FCC detailing problems their constituents faced and asking for fixes. Getting back on the program’s rolls is proving difficult for some customers.