The penalties for welfare fraud or what’s actually described in the statute as wrongfully obtaining public assistance vary. If he amount is over $1,000.00 which is usually the case, it’s a felony, a year and a day in prison possibly even more than that, maximum fines could top as much as $15,000.00-20,000.00. Now it’s very rare to get that high to be honest but it could be a substantial amount in terms of fines.