Thousands Of Pandemic Unemployment Claims Listed The Names Of Still-Employed Government Workers, Senator Says

Federal investigators discovered that thousands may have incorrectly received coronavirus bailouts. They claimed to be unemployed and some did it from their desks in government offices.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), is asking for answers. They claim that the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, (PARC), should provide them with information. “recover the money that was ripped off, and grant each of those who took advantage of taxpayers by collecting jobless benefits their wish to be unemployed.”

“It is appalling for anyone fortunate enough to have the reliability of a government paycheck to take advantage of financial assistance intended to provide a lifeline to Americans who lost their jobs or were unable to work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ernst added.

People who claimed that their jobs were being affected by the coronavirus in 2020 received significant payments from a variety of government programs. The Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General Find it There are nearly 2,000 available applications “Lost Wages Assistance” The names of DHS employees ineligible for unemployment insurance payments were included on the list of those who received them. They were of course employed by the government agency.

In fact, of 2,393 applications filed with DHS employees’ names, only 584 could be confirmed as actually eligible for the program — and even some of those bore signs of fraud, such as incorrect amounts.

People who worked less due to the pandemic could be eligible for benefits. However, in 366 cases the audit revealed that the person associated with the unemployment claim actually worked overtime during this period.

In some cases, the fraud may have been the result of criminals stealing the employees’ identities and successfully filing unemployment claims with them. There were other indications that employees were responsible, such as the fact that certain government assistance forms were filled out using computers registered to the DHS computer network.

Fraud was possible because DHS did not have sufficient security measures to verify assistance claims, despite its responsibility for keeping the nation safe.

“This occurred because FEMA hastily implemented the LWA program in 11 days, during an unprecedented pandemic, without developing program controls to prevent fraud,” Auditors wrote.

Ernst wrote Friday’s letter to Michael Horowitz chair of the PARC “Employees of other federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, Amtrak, and the U.S. Postal Service have also been caught fraudulently collecting unemployment payments, despite being on the federal payroll.”

The state of Georgia’s inspector general It was said that “we have tentatively identified over 280 full-time state employees who erroneously received unemployment insurance (UI) payments in 2020 or 2021. These payments averaged $23,700 per employee and totaled over $6.7 million. And this is a conservative estimate.”

All included “Two Department of Human Services DCSS/DFCS supervisors who received approximately $49,730 and $36,575” And a state employee who was assigned to evaluate unemployment claims. But who was also responsible for his own work. “received approximately $31,220 and who continued to update a fraudulent UI account while employed with” The Georgia Department of Labor

October will see the Department of Justice It claimed it had arrested five IRS employees, current or former, with pandemic fraud for more than $1,000,000 they allegedly used. “cars, luxury goods, and personal travel, including trips to Las Vegas.” However, the inspector general of the Small Business Administration has been fired. This agency administered the largest coronavirus programs. Recognized It was amazing that so much money was made in such a short time and with such great speed. so few safeguardsOnly a fraction of suspicious cases have been investigated.

SBA offers forgivable “loans” To business owners whose livelihood was ostensibly disrupted by COVID, also known as PPP payments or EIDL payments. Its most recent semiannual report PARC reported to Congress that they had found six federal agencies by matching the data of federal employees and these payments. “tens of thousands of employees with SBA loans for which they were not eligible.”

Cross-referencing that list of names — people with stable jobs whose identities are readily known to the government because they work for it — could yield many more problematic unemployment claims at other agencies, Ernst said. “I would encourage you to conduct a similar review to determine how many unscrupulous bureaucrats wrongfully took advantage of the federal pandemic unemployment and lost wages assistance programs,” She wrote.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases