The Department of Labor’s (DOL) internal watchdog estimates that a minimum of $191 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits may have been misspent.
DOL Inspector General Larry Turner said in testimony submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday that “at least $191 billion in pandemic unemployment insurance payments could have been abusive payments, a significant part being attributable to fraud”.
That figure is nearly $30 billion higher than the $163 billion estimate Turner gave last year in testimony before the Democratic-controlled Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The Ways and Means Panel, chaired by Republican Rep. Jason Smith (Mo.), meets Wednesday for a hearing on what Smith called “the biggest theft of taxpayers’ money in American history, the fraud massive perpetrated in the unemployment insurance program which skyrocketed with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With these varying estimates, it is clear that the Biden administration and Congress are in the dark about the size and scope of the biggest theft of taxpayers’ money in American history. The new Republican majority is turning on the lights,” Smith said.
The government created four new unemployment programs when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in a bid to help affected workers, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the rapid dispersal of funds opened up the programs to exploitation.
Citing DOL statistics, the GAO puts the amount the federal government paid out in unemployment insurance benefits at about $878 billion between April 2020 and September 2022.
The GAO said in a report last month “substantial levels of fraud and potential fraud in Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs during the pandemic.” Although it clarified that no single metric “comprehensively and reliably indicates the extent of fraud in unemployment insurance programs,” the GAO estimated that fraud could have exceeded $60 billion.
Turner’s testimony says the DOL Inspector General’s Office is “committed to addressing the challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic” and helping to improve the “efficiency and integrity” of the insurance program -unemployment.
“Strengthening the Unemployment Insurance program to prevent fraud before it happens and to detect it when it does occur are key goals in ensuring that unemployed workers quickly receive much-needed benefits while preserving taxpayers’ money earmarked for this purpose,” Turner wrote.
After taking control of the lower house from Democrats midterm, Republicans have placed oversight of the Biden administration and scrutiny of the COVID-19 pandemic among their top priorities for investigations.
