More than $60 billion may have been paid out in fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report released Monday by the US Government Accountability Office.
The watchdog agency, however, warned that the estimate has limitations and should be interpreted with caution. The actual amount of pandemic unemployment benefits fraud may be “substantially higher.”
At least $4.3 billion in jobless benefits fraud has been formally determined by state unemployment agencies, while at least $45 billion in payments have been flagged for potential fraud by the US Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General, the GAO said. But this cannot be interpreted as the extent of the problem, it continued.
The GAO report provides the latest insight into the numerous schemes to steal money from a range of hastily implemented pandemic relief programs.
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