The total amount of false unemployment payments distributed during the pandemic may be between $100 billion and $135 billion, accounting for up to 15% of total benefits issued between April 2020 and May 2023, according to a government watchdog.
The study doubles the original estimate the Government Accountability Office gave to the House Ways and Means Committee in February.
And the actual level of fraud may be higher, despite more than a billion dollars allocated to states by the Biden administration for the prevention, detection, investigation and remediation of unemployment fraud.
“Full level [unemployment] fraud during a pandemic may not be known with certainty,” the GAO said in a report released Tuesday.
States have reported recovering only about $6.8 billion in pandemic-era unemployment surpluses, including $1.2 billion in fraudulent payments – or less than 1% of the staggering amount of potential fraud estimated by the GAO.
“Unprecedented demand for [unemployment] “The benefits and urgency of countries implementing new programs during the pandemic increase the risk of improper payments, including, but not limited to, those caused by fraud,” the report said.
The total amount of fraudulent unemployment payments doled out during the pandemic may be between $100 billion and $135 billion.AP
The CARES Act of March 2020 increased unemployment benefits with federal dollars, providing the unemployed with an additional $600 in weekly benefits – later reduced to $300 – for 79 weeks.
“From April 1, 2020, to May 31, 2023, expenses throughout [unemployment] system totals about $900 billion, according to Department of Labor (DOL) data,” the GAO said.
The study was conducted in response to a request from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.).
The study doubles the original estimate the Government Accountability Office gave to the House Ways and Means Committee in February.AP
“These staggering estimates continue to grow, and, as the GAO noted, we may never know the full scope and scale of the payment fraud pandemic,” Crapo, the ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the Administration’s efforts to deal with over a hundred billion dollars in fraud inside [unemployment] program has fallen very short. Congress should pass the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act to recover stolen funds for victims and prevent similar large-scale thefts from occurring in the future,” he added.
Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, called the estimated fraud “the largest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history” and demanded Senate Democrats “take immediate action” to combat it.
The actual level of fraud may be higher, even though more than a billion dollars has been allocated to states by the Biden administration for the prevention, detection, investigation and remediation of unemployment fraud. EPA
“I am deeply troubled by these findings and even more convinced that immediate action is needed to recover as much of the taxpayers’ money as possible,” Smith said Tuesday.
“Unemployment fraud punishes workers and families by taking resources away from law-abiding Americans who are entitled to assistance and putting those resources directly into the pockets of criminals. The unfortunate reality is that every day President Biden spends ignoring this problem, the chances of recovering stolen tax dollars on behalf of the victims of this fraud diminish.”
The GAO noted that the Biden administration’s Department of Labor “expressed concern” with the study’s methodology “and noted that the resulting estimates are likely overstated.”
The GAO said that it “disagrees” with the Labor Department’s assessment of the study.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
