Welfare fraud in the second degree · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 158.20 Welfare fraud in the second degree.
A person is guilty of welfare fraud in the second degree when he or she commits a fraudulent welfare act and thereby takes or obtains public assistance benefits, and when the value of the public assistance benefits exceeds fifty thousand dollars.
Welfare fraud in the second degree is a class C felony.
A person commits second-degree welfare fraud by committing a fraudulent welfare act and thereby taking public assistance benefits worth more than $50,000. ★ It is a class C felony.
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.