Posts tagged unemployment benefits insurance
$11 billion was stolen from taxpayers in a massive fraud — will officials just ignore it?
November 28, 2022 // The Labor Department repeatedly blamed identity theft for its fraud problems — but the audit revealed it didn’t implement a system that could meaningfully curb identify theft until February 2021. Labor Department officials still can’t say how many fraudulent claims were paid or how long it took to detect them. Audits revealing incompetence and bad decisions aren’t uncommon. But DiNapoli’s team, to its lasting credit, found something worse: Labor Department officials had gone rogue, repeatedly misleading legislators and the public. When Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon addressed lawmakers in January 2022, she said the department had “prevented over $36 billion from falling into the hands of criminals.” Auditors, however, found that claim couldn’t be substantiated.
Opinion: An unprecedented labor shortage
July 26, 2022 // There are 50% more job openings today than at any time before the pandemic. The unemployment rate is near a half-century low. So how did that happen? A combination of government policies that simultaneously reduced the supply of workers and stimulated demand for goods and services. There are 755,000 fewer people employed today than at the start of the pandemic, despite an increase of 4.2 million in the population of people ages 16 and older. employment-to-population ratio, labor force decline, Social Security, welfare-without-work, federal subsidies, Recognized Apprenticeship Programs, Heritage Foundation’s Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, education alternatives, encourage flexible work
Unemployment system plagued by delays, fraud and racial gaps during pandemic, says watchdog agency
June 9, 2022 // The nation’s unemployment system suffered multiple failures during the Covid-19 pandemic, including delayed payments, elevated fraud and “substantial” disparities in receipt of benefits along racial and ethnic lines, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said in two reports issued Tuesday. The GAO on Tuesday also added unemployment insurance to its “high-risk list,” which outlines programs and operations vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement, or in need of transformation. UI system, joblessness, Great Depression, self-employed, gig workers, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, PUA, stolen identities, Rep. Richard Neal, federalizing unemployment benefits, benefit administration, modernizing computer systems
Fraud had ‘significant’ role in $163 billion leak from pandemic-era unemployment system
May 30, 2022 // More than $163 billion in benefits likely leaked from the unemployment system during the pandemic, with a “significant portion” attributable to fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report.
Firing Of 3 Town Employees For ‘Triple-Dipping’ During Pandemic Upheld
May 11, 2022 // It also is noted that each "blatantly" continued to file unemployment claims despite knowing they were not eligible, documents show. It was argued the three conspired: "There is one aspect of the conspiracy argument that is worthy of comment: the strikingly similar answers from all three Grievants at times, and the group amnesia at other times. The Arbitrators interest was piqued at the similar and non-committal testimony at times.
Connecticut: OP-ED | Unemployment Benefits For Striking Workers? No, It’s Not The Onion
April 26, 2022 // Senate Bill 317 is highly unusual, but not unheard of. Then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed similar legislation on the eve of the pandemic in 2020 and another such law passed four years ago in New Jersey, but in most cases benefits for striking Garden State workers only kick in after 30 days. Like Connecticut, both of those states have struggled with budget deficits over the last several years, though the most recent shortfalls have been mitigated by federal coronavirus relief funds.
Illinois: Pritzker administration still won’t reveal unemployment fraud estimate
February 12, 2022 // From the third quarter of 2020 through the second quarter of 2021, a spreadsheet from the U.S. Department of Labor shows Illinois’ fraud rate for unemployment payouts was 8.4% of $5.1 billion, an indication of nearly $430 million in fraud during that time period.
Opinion: Labor Unions Are Growing in California Because Workers Need Them
December 13, 2021 //
Here’s why labor unions are winning again
December 7, 2021 // Workers are fed up and feeling empowered because of widespread dissatisfaction with working conditions.