Feds have recovered less than 1% of $163
billion in bogus unemployment benefits
Washington Times,
by
Stephen Dinan
Original Article
Posted By: Ribicon,
3/17/2022 2:58:47 PM
The federal government paid out at least $163 billion in bogus pandemic unemployment benefits, and less than 1% of that bad money has actually been recovered, an inspector general told Congress on Thursday. Labor Department Inspector General Larry D. Turner said the states that doled out the federal money weren’t prepared for the massive infusion of cash in their unemployment systems and were using outdated systems easily exploited by fraudsters. The result is that of $872.5 billion in federal unemployment money spent, at least $163 billion—or 18.71%—of that were improper payments. The inspector general said just $830 million has been recovered two years into the pandemic, which works out
Reply 1 - Posted by:
chance_232 3/17/2022 3:05:58 PM (No. 1102722)
163 billion would double our aircraft carrier fleet. We could build another 90 destroyers. We could triple the size of the talibans military. That's triple Germany's 2021 defense budget.
8 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Nimby 3/17/2022 3:06:40 PM (No. 1102723)
Fire the entire crowd
9 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 3/17/2022 3:10:15 PM (No. 1102729)
A trillion here a trillion there....pretty soon we’re talkin’ real money. Thank God ours is now worthless!
9 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
snapper451 3/17/2022 3:10:46 PM (No. 1102730)
Check Joe & Hunter’s bank accounts.
12 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
skacmar 3/17/2022 3:20:15 PM (No. 1102739)
The Feds and and states were very quick to hand out the Covid unemployment funds to to just abut anyone and everyone who asked for them no questions asked. People who hadn't worked in a long time, were otherwise ineligible for benefits, or saw the opportunity for free cash applied and got their benefits that were often more than they would have made working. As an employer, The Unemployment Agency in my state is finally getting back to me about 10 unemployment claims that I protested between March and October 2020. It has been almost 2 years and they are just getting to it. In the mean time, the ex-employees (who were ineligible for unemployment benefits) collected state and federal benefits. Some collected up to $30,000 in a few months. Now, they are finally being questioned about their eligibility. Unfortunately, that money is long spent and they will just claim a hardship in paying the money back and the money that they were ineligible for will be forgiven and they get to keep the unemployment benefits received. Their fraud will be allowed because of government incompetence on the part of state and federal employees who could not do their jobs in a timely manner.
7 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Schnapps 3/17/2022 3:24:29 PM (No. 1102742)
Just put it on my grandkids' tab - along with all the green energy subsidies and the planeloads of cash sent to Iran.
5 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Hazymac 3/17/2022 3:25:19 PM (No. 1102743)
The money, provided to (in Edward Banfield's words) radically present oriented people, was immediately spent, in many cases, on illegal drugs. The feds have got a better chance of seeing God than of seeing 5% of the filthy lucre returned.
8 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
hershey 3/17/2022 4:02:51 PM (No. 1102759)
Big surprise...they are still trying to find some dirt on Trump in is 1965 yearbook...
6 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
chumley 3/17/2022 4:08:13 PM (No. 1102761)
Safe bet much of it is already back- in the form of political donations. It was likely the plan all along.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Daisymay 3/17/2022 4:15:27 PM (No. 1102765)
Check the Jails! Inmates made out great between Covid money and Unemployment! Just goes to show ya what the Dumber than a Box of Rocks the people sending out that money are. Can't even ASK what does an Inmate need UNemployment money for!
3 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
pros7767 3/17/2022 4:20:44 PM (No. 1102767)
In the meantime, my son STILL has not received his tax refund from last year or any of the 2021 stimulus payments, while he is working 2 jobs!
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
lynngirl122 3/17/2022 4:24:45 PM (No. 1102769)
BILLION?? Jesus..
1 person likes this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
AntiStatist 3/17/2022 4:26:39 PM (No. 1102771)
Just part of that (real) 15% inflation rate we’re suffering.
Our governments (fed and state) were just so stupid to hand out all that free cash, but it was a presidential election year and Trump just had to be beaten, no matter the cost. Which all of us are bearing now.
2 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
berthabutt 3/17/2022 5:09:45 PM (No. 1102795)
Somebody tried to file on my SS# but the confirmation letter sent to our home address let me flag the state unemployment fraud dept to stop it. How hard is it for state to only approve benefits to those who had tax records in recent years? I hadn't worked since hubs retired from AF in 2000!
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
bighambone 3/17/2022 5:57:31 PM (No. 1102812)
They are not about to recover those funds that were incompetently handed out, as there are away to many Democrat supporters and voters involved, who defrauded the government, in order to latch on to all that “free” government money. Clearly the Democrats don’t want a large number of their supporters convicted of felony crimes and unable to legally vote for them in the future. So the 1% recovery rate will be quietly determined to be good enough for government work.
2 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DaBigGuy 3/17/2022 6:36:00 PM (No. 1102839)
FTA: “This created a situation where fraudsters had a high-reward target where an individual could make a fraudulent claim with relatively low risk of being caught, at least initially, due to the lack of basic anti-fraud measures,”
They had measures, they just didn't use them. One employer I know said all of his employees filed for unemployment even though they were still fully employed. Their justification? All their friends were doing it. The state gets quarterly reports showing gross wages of every employee, how hard is it to see that wages in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2020 were virtually the same? In fact, the state sent my friend an employment verification on his employees, requesting payment dates and gross payroll amounts for each paycheck for each quarter. Then the state did nothing. Their excuses for not catching this sooner are lame.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
smokincol 3/17/2022 6:51:01 PM (No. 1102856)
as per Bootsie Widener in "Volunteers" (1985) famous quote: 'What the hell, Lawrence, it's only money" before Tom Hanks started drinking the commie Kool-Ad in Hollywood, John Candy played a supporting role - great movie and Hanks married his female co-star Rita Wilson
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
Heil Liberals 3/17/2022 10:07:30 PM (No. 1102979)
The lack of K-Y isn't even an issue anymore. Americans are now so used to being bent over that it seems to be our natural state.
Our Founding Fathers and Mothers went to war over less than what we now endure. Jefferson knew people and said that we will bear the insults to our humanity and liberty while they are bearable. Nothing lasts forever. No civilization that ever proclaimed itself forever, as in Union forever, has survived, period.
2 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
judy 3/18/2022 5:04:15 AM (No. 1103073)
They have time & $$$ to have children spy on parents, follow attendees at school board meetings, investigate J6ers & thier families for years.....
3 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
anniebc 3/18/2022 5:33:19 AM (No. 1103092)
But the IRS is hiring 80K to make sure they get our tax dollars, though.
2 people like this.
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There's always an excuse, but it doesn't matter. It's our money they're spending, not theirs, and there is zero accountability for our obscenely overpaid, wasteful, and incompetent (often intentionally so) government "workers." A nice thought for tax season.