Labor Department Targets ‘Terrifying’ Level of Unemployment Fraud – By Michael Rainey (Fiscal Times) / Aug 12 2021
The U.S. Department of Labor is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to combat fraud in the benefits system for unemployed workers – fraud that experts fear skyrocketed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The department is making $140 million in grants available to “support states with fraud detection and prevention, including identity verification and overpayment recovery activities” in unemployment compensation programs, according to a letter released Wednesday. An additional $100 million is now available to help states detect and reduce fraud in the temporary Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs, which Congress established to provide additional aid to the jobless during the Covid crisis.
The money to fight fraud was provided by the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law in March. The law allocated as much as $2 billion to help states improve their unemployment systems.
