By Tom Gantert (The Center Square)
A U.S. government report released Monday estimates that there could have been more than $60 billion in unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic.
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The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office says that figure is an estimate spread over the entire unemployment system and should be “interpreted with caution.”
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There has been $4.3 billion of unemployment fraud proven by state workforce agencies and at least $45 billion more in transactions that were flagged as potential fraudulent unemployment claims but not confirmed.
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The U.S. Department of Labor stated that about $878 billion in total unemployment benefits were paid from April 2020 through September 2022, the report stated. There was $209 billion in expenditures under the regular unemployment insurance and about $669 billion payouts under the various pandemic unemployment programs, which ended September 6, 2021.
The U.S. Congress created four new unemployment insurance programs during the pandemic, according to the report.
The report also questioned the U.S. Department of Labor’s efforts to combat fraud.
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“The Department of Labor has taken steps to address such fraud,” the U.S. Government Accountability Office pointed out. “However, the department has yet to develop an antifraud strategy based on leading practices from GAO’s Fraud Risk Framework as required by law.”
The GAO continued: “While these steps help prevent, detect, and respond to fraud, as of December 2022, DOL has not yet developed an antifraud strategy based on leading practices in GAO’s Fraud Risk Framework. Also, it has not yet addressed the six October 2021 recommendations GAO made including to identify, assess the impact of, and prioritize UI fraud risks. These are essential pieces to inform an overall antifraud strategy. Without an antifraud strategy, DOL is not able to ensure that it is addressing the most significant fraud risks facing the UI system in alignment with the Fraud Risk Framework.”
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Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
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Rubber Creepy Joementia, Obummer, Killary Sta Kitty Clinton and the pedo-Bush clan taught these poor kids everything they need to know about fraud..
They say they’ve identified a lot of it, but what are they doing about getting it back and jailing or fining the thieves?
All that extra money SHOULD have gone to those of us who kept working through the pandemic. Hazard pay, as it were, not to a bunch of sissies who sat at home for 3 years eating bon bons and watching soap operas
If memory serves, there were ‘more than a few’ votes from the right for this, too.
It seems like all government handouts wind up in the wrong hands. Let’s not even talk about the Covid business loans and who received the most of them, it surely wasn’t the hard working people
Looks to me like our Government Bureaucrats are a bunch of dummies. They should look for employment.