A 24-year-old Michigan woman who won $1M in the state lottery last September still collects welfare from her home state.

Amanda Clayton was forced to publicly defend her decision to remain on welfare after she was the subject of a local TV station exposé:

I feel that it's okay [to receive welfare] because I mean, I have no income and I have bills to pay. I have two houses.

Rather than collect her winnings in annual installments, Clayton opted to receive a lump sum payout of $500,000 last September. She used a portion of that money to buy herself a new car and, for some reason, to increase the number of homes she already had by one hundred percent. She paid for both car and house in cash.

For what it's worth, Clayton is just as surprised as you are that she is still eligible for $200 a month in food stamps.

"I thought they would cut me off, but since they didn't, I thought maybe it was okay because I'm not working."

A member of the state House of Representatives is now sponsoring a bill that would require lottery winners to have their eligibility for public assistance re-assessed if they received prize amounts greater than $1,000.

Another Michigan resident continued receiving public aid after winning a $2-million lottery jackpot in 2010.

[Image via Shutterstock]