Benefits Card

Has a New Jersey supermarket shuttered its windows ever since Nov. 1, 2025 when SNAP payments were cut off? No, that's not true: The store had not, at the time this was written, closed because of a delay in the dispersal of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. The store manager told Lead Stories they have been open during their…

Does a viral video really show a mother of six's rant about her "food stamps" and housing benefits being cut from $4,300 per month to $19 per month? No, that's not true: The woman appearing in the video has previously said she posts the rants as satire and they are not real. That dollar amount greatly exaggerates what is available…

Is Roland Beainy, the co-owner of Trump Burger restaurants in Texas, being deported? Here is what we know: A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency told Lead Stories that ICE officers arrested Beainy on May 16, 2025, and he was placed into immigration proceedings. He was released from custody on bond by an immigration judge while the…

Is a video of a man failing to buy a sandwich with an EBT card at a Subway restaurant from January 2025 and related to the federal funding freeze announced by the Trump administration that month? No, that's not true: The footage was online at least half a year before the second Trump presidency. As of January 29, 2025, the…

Does a proposed New York state constitutional amendment "grant" voting rights "to illegal aliens" and "strip parental rights" by not informing parents without the child's approval about their decision to get gender transition surgery? No, that's not true: There is no mention anywhere in the proposed amendment of giving undocumented immigrants voting rights. The proposed amendment bans discrimination against gender…

Does Iceland have "no prisons" and is electricity free there? No, that's not true: Iceland does have four correctional facilities. A typical monthly residential electricity bill there ranges between $16.50 and $43. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on June 17, 2024. It opened: ICELAND: The country where education and medicare are free. No prisons. No…

Did a migrant who was angry that he had not received a packet of government benefits throw a rock from an interstate overpass, nearly killing a woman? No, that's not true: This story appears to be based on a 2014 incident that occurred along Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. In that case the perpetrators throwing rocks were teenage boys from Pennsylvania,…

Is the U.S. government providing $5,000 to each illegal migrant and to all Americans? No, neither element of the claim is true: An immigration policy think tank contacted by Lead Stories said these claims are a "false rumor" that has been circulating since December 2023. Immigrants who enter the country illegally generally are not eligible for most federal benefits or…

Does the state of North Carolina have an "affordable supplemental death benefit program" that will pay up to $40,000 to cover final expenses as is claimed in an ad posted on Facebook? No, that's not true: No such statewide benefit program exists. This misleading ad is intended to generate leads to sell life insurance for final expenses. There is no…

Does a government health poster list "heart attacks," "strokes" and "sudden death" as side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine, as shown in an Instagram post? No, that's not true: It is counterfeit. Though it was made to look like official Irish government health circulars, the Irish government never published a poster listing those as side effects. Additionally, there is no…