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The Ministry of Labour The inspector general has reported that he suspects at least $45 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims have been distributed since March 2020.
A new report from the Inspector General’s Office (OIG) has expressed concern that the Employment and Training Agency (ETA) has failed to respond to previous reports that billions of dollars in fraudulent claims were being paid and has not provided accurate and timely information.
In June 2021, the OIG reported finding approximately $16 billion in potentially fraudulent claims. The complaints resulted from people using social security numbers file for unemployment insurance in multiple states, on behalf of deceased persons, using suspicious email accounts and from federal prisoners. Since that report, the OIG has identified $29.6 billion more in potentially fraudulent claims, according to a Sept. 21 report.
The US Department of Labor reported that the Consumer Price Index, which measures the price of everyday goods including gas, groceries and rents, rose 8.3% in August. compared to a year ago. (Photo by Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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After struggling to get claims data in a timely manner or receiving incomplete data when claims were met, OIG expressed concern fraudulent claims will continue to be full.
“ETA’s failure to take sufficient action significantly increases the risk of even larger unemployment insurance payments for ineligible claimants,” the OIG wrote in its report. “Our identification of potentially fraudulent additional payments underscores the need for increased ETA engagement and support to mitigate fraud and protect the integrity of the Unemployment Insurance program.”
JULY 24: Faustino (R), who is currently unemployed, waits in a socially distanced queue to enter an accounting store near the US-Mexico border in Imperial County, which has been hit hard by the pandemic of COVID-19 on July 24, 2020 in Calexico, California (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images/Getty Images)
The OIG estimates a total of $872.5 billion in pandemic unemployment insurance has been paid since March 2020.
Although the office continued to monitor potentially fraudulent requests sent in the four problem areas it identified in June, it did not receive any data from the justice department or Bureau of Prisons to update its estimates of fraudulent claims paid to federal prisoners.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) building on Thursday, August 18, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images/Getty Images)
However, the other three issues the OIG previously identified continued to see billions of dollars in potentially fraudulent claims.
Between March 2020 and April 2022, the OIG found that individuals used 991,793 social security numbers in multiple states to file a claim for $28.9 million in benefits.
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During the same period, people used 205,766 Social Security numbers to file $139.4 million in benefits, and people used 1,714,188 Social Security numbers to file $16.2 billion in benefits. .
While it doesn’t have updated numbers, the OIG reported in June that the social security numbers of potentially ineligible federal prisoners were used to file claims for $267.3 million.
