The two committee chairmen said some estimates say as much as $400 billion in fraudulent unemployment payments may have been made during the COVID pandemic, during which nearly $900 billion in relief payments went out.
Under their bill, state workforce agencies that manage federal unemployment benefits would be incentivized to pursue fraudulent claims – they would keep 25% of everything they recover, and let them use it at the state level to improve unemployment insurance integrity by hiring fraud investigators, boosting ID verification and other steps.
In early February, the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General told Smith’s committee that at least $191 billion in COVID unemployment benefits were lost to fraud, and likely more. That report said COVID created a"perfect storm" for fraud, as people were allowed to self-certify that they were eligible to receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance , which went to millions of people who were not traditionally eligible for unemployment benefits.
The OIG found that the improper payment rate for unemployment insurance was about 10% before COVID but jumped to roughly double that during COVID. Other witnesses at Smith’s committee said state workforce agencies weren’t prepared to handle the rush of COVID-related claims, which contributed to fraud.Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content.
Fox News just met their Wateloo.
Uhh…you can thank Trump for that. You do know PPP loans were a Trump thing, right?
Trump ripped us off big time!
Remember when Trump & Mnuchin highjacked that last relief bill with zero oversite? 😀