Hundreds of billions of dollars worth of unemployment insurance (UI) payments handed over during the COVID-19 pandemic are estimated to have been fraudulent, according to a recent report by a federal watchdog agency that admitted the “full extent” of the fraud remains unknown.
Responding to massive job losses during the pandemic, Congress created new temporary unemployment insurance programs to provide relief for those who lost their jobs at the time. However, the “unprecedented demand for benefits and need to quickly implement the new programs increased the risk of fraud,” said the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in its Sept. 12 report (pdf).
