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The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is estimating that unemployment insurance fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic reached a range of $100 billion to $135 billion – way up from the $60 billion the watchdog agency previously estimated earlier this year.

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House Republicans introduced legislation on Feb. 24 that aims to help recover billions of dollars of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits estimated to have been stolen by fraudsters during the pandemic.

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The Department of Labor (DOL) – which provides funding and assistance to states to run their unemployment insurance (UI) programs – remains in need of a better strategy to help prevent UI fraud in light of large-scale fraud in the program during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

The Department of Labor’s (DoL) Office of Inspector General (OIG) determined that the agency – along with state workforce agencies – has paid more than $45 billion in unemployment insurance (UI) pandemic benefits to fraudsters, according to an alert memorandum published on Sept. 21.

President Biden’s budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2023 is seeking $3.4 billion for the Labor Department (DoL) to help modernize unemployment insurance (UI) systems run by states and territories – many of which were overwhelmed with demand during the coronavirus pandemic.

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