COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud Costs Taxpayers $200 Billion

The federal government in the United States is spending more money now than at any other point in history. To the surprise of absolutely no one, a lot of those funds are being mismanaged.

The California payout of over $11 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims was just the tip of the iceberg. One computer security firm, ID.me, which specializes in identifying worker identities for roughly 75% of the U.S. population, found that in excess of $200 billion in federal assistance for the unemployed could have disappeared down the black hole of fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • Roughly 20% was linked to compromised or breached personal data, i.e., identity theft.
  • Up to 10% was stolen through social engineering—email phishing, fraudulent telephone solicitations, etc.
  • Then there’s a whopping fraudulent 30% of claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for the self-employed and contractors.

According to the American Enterprise Institute, unemployment assistance fraud has now become the fourth largest funds expenditure, lagging just behind the Paycheck Protection Program.

California, Washington, and Massachusetts led the way as targets for fraudsters. As previously mentioned, California’s $11.4 billion in fraudulent payout amounted to about 10% of total benefits paid. Still another 17% is currently under investigation. Massachusetts paid out about $687 million. Washington was no slacker with $600 million, or 122,000 suspected or known fraudulent claims.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Congress has committed over $485 billion to help unemployed Americans. The latest $1.8 trillion has $209 billion in unemployment with another $94.3 billion to further expand eligibility for unemployment assistance.

The old adage that success has many parents, but failure is an orphan, holds true with the new Biden Administration. President Biden has promised a crackdown on fraud and waste as his administration plans to throw another $1.9 trillion into the fiery maw of the federal government’s spending furnace.

The President promised to “stay on top of every dollar spent” on the American Rescue Plan. Promising “fastidious oversight,” the new administration hopes to ensure there is no waste and fraud.

There’s plenty of blame to go around. However, the fraud was at the state level. Managing and targeting the billions of federal largesse in times of economic stress went far beyond any president’s span of control. The fraud was a result of poor state unemployment payment oversight.

In any case, the next huge federal spending bill may well be another example of the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. President Biden’s chapter 2 is a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. His vision is that our federal government’s bottomless money laundering tax-and-spend (with an emphasis on spend) role can work any better at the trillion-dollar level than it did with $200 billion in easy money for computer scammers.

President Biden wants to prime the nation’s crumbling infrastructure with “investments,” public housing, agriculture and conservation, and, yes, environmental justice. And don’t forget the power sector where he hopes that he’ll be more successful than President Obama’s bankrupted solar energy plan.

The President wants the Obama 2.0 version of renewable energy—windmills, solar energy, and reemploying West Virginia coal miners to be computer programmers. On the campaign trail, Biden actually said, “Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program, for God’s sake!”

Loretta Lynn, the quintessential coal miner’s daughter, might not agree.


Most Popular

These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.

To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].

Family-Friendly Content

Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More



Most Popular
Sponsored Content

These content links are provided by Content.ad. Both Content.ad and the web site upon which the links are displayed may receive compensation when readers click on these links. Some of the content you are redirected to may be sponsored content. View our privacy policy here.

To learn how you can use Content.ad to drive visitors to your content or add this service to your site, please contact us at [email protected].

Family-Friendly Content

Website owners select the type of content that appears in our units. However, if you would like to ensure that Content.ad always displays family-friendly content on this device, regardless of what site you are on, check the option below. Learn More

4 thoughts on “COVID-19 Unemployment Fraud Costs Taxpayers $200 Billion”

  1. IMPEACH BIDEN AND HARRIS!

    WE THE PEOPLE (aka SILENT MAJORITY) had countless opportunities to have stopped this nightmare, but we chose to give the DEMOCRATS what they expected of us, to REMAIN SILENT! Thus, making us equally complicit in the fraud perpetrated against United States Americans!

    Isn’t it time you actually did something, took action? How much more damage needs to be done?

    I urge everyone who reads this to PICK UP THE PHONE and call your REP AND SENATORS in DC and DEMAND IMMEDIATE IMPEACHMENT OF BIDEN AND HARRIS.

    BIDEN is completely UNFIT FOR OFFICE! Biden is guilty of 18 U.S. Code CHAPTER 115—TREASON, SEDITION, AND SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES.

    Can you continue to tolerate gasoline prices, product prices all going up, the WH being run by Harris, Pelosi and Schumer? Literally destroying our country, allowing thousands upon thousands of illegals into our country bringing in God knows what diseases?

    Then copy and paste this information into an E-Mail and send to friends and family asking them to make the calls, then forward on to their friends asking them to make the calls and forward on! WE NEED TO MAKE THIS GO VIRAL!

    Members of the House
    202-224-3841

    Members of the Senate
    202-224-3121

    TOLL FREE:
    866-272-6622

    Keep in mind: SILENCE = ACCEPTANCE

  2. Before the final assassination of America, the plutocrats, led by Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, and others, scammers, they decided to completely rob her treasury, leaving the Americans beggars.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *