Posted on 11/14/2022 6:53:05 AM PST by dynachrome
As much as $400 billion in COVID-19 unemployment relief dollars were likely lost to waste and fraudsters. Lawmakers want answers.
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor demanding documents and information related to the unemployment fraud.
“Since the Summer of 2020, repeated alerts from federal law enforcement agencies warned of targeted efforts involving organized cybercrime, foreign actors, and international crime rings using stolen identities of American citizens to obtain fraudulent unemployment benefits,” the letter said. “Fraud estimates range from $80 billion to as much as $400 billion, which is nearly half of all the COVID-19 unemployment aid.”
The Department of Labor’s Inspector General released a report in October showing that fraud varied by state but was significant nationwide.
“We found ETA and states did not ensure pandemic-related UI funds were paid only to eligible individuals promptly. Of the 4 states we tested, from March 28, 2020, through September 30, 2020, we estimated $30.4 billion of the $71.7 billion in PUA and FPUC benefits were paid improperly (42.4 percent),” the report said. “We estimated $9.9 billion of that was paid to likely fraudsters (13.8 percent). Notably, in the 4 states, 1 in 5 dollars initially paid in PUA benefits went to likely fraudsters.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thecentersquare.com ...
Democrats are great at losing taxpayer money, remember Hillary’s state department...
The WHOLE payment thing was a fraud. We should have ridden it out without shutting down the economy. Now we have lazy people not working, product shortages everywhere, and sky-high inflation from here to Kingdom Come.
My thought as well. I even checked under my sofa to make sure I did not have it.
Are we in the “Looting the Treasury” part now?
It’s not ‘lost’.
If they can find ballots, they can find dough..............
As a fraud scheme, it was an ENORMOUS success. Just not for the American people as a whole.
A few bandits made out like, well, bandits. And they pretty much made a clean getaway, too.
That cake is baked.
A few trillion here and a few trillion there and pretty soon you’re talking about some real money.
Are we in the “Looting the Treasury” part now?
Yes, I think since the news about the Crypto currency, the Fraud of the State department via Ukraine and the Bidens et al, and now the Covid Fraud, I think we can say that we have reached that stage. We certainly have lost elections to fraud in many states. Should be close to the end.
“Now we have lazy people not working, product shortages everywhere, and sky-high inflation from here to Kingdom Come.”
Everything according to plan.
This will stop when we run out of other people’s money.
No wonder a lot of people can afford not to work.
Maybe they should write some letters using strong words.
“Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee sent a letter”
Clowns.
Who didn’t see this coming?
WUT?! 🤔😲. There was “systemic” abuse and fraud? Butt, butt, butt.........
When I was a kid and first becoming aware of politics by listening to the adults, I heard “fraud and waste.” That was probably in 1965 and I’ve been hearing “fraud and waste” ever since. Nothing ever changes.
The entire government is one giant tarball of Fraud and Waste. Starting with all the scumbags lining their pockets.
If you cant beat them, join them. How many millions feeding at the trough.....I’m one of the dumb ones working for a living.
The entire federal budget in 1980 was around $500B/yr.
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