FGA Releases Research Paper That Identifies Solutions to the Top Five Unemployment Insurance Fraud Schemes
- BY FGA
Naples, FL—Last week, the Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) released a paper that highlights solutions that better protect the unemployment system currently plagued by waste, fraud, and abuse. The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that many states lack sufficient safeguards in their unemployment systems, allowing fraudsters to receive more than $300 billion in improper unemployment payments. In this paper, FGA discusses the most common fraud schemes, as well as solutions states can implement to prevent these forms of fraud from occurring in the future.
Solutions include:
· Shared and crossmatched data among states
· Strengthened identification procedures for eligibility
· Crossmatch unemployment enrollment with death records
· Crossmatch unemployment enrollment with local, state, and federal prison records
· Recover overpayments and enforce criminal penalties
“From stolen identities to applications for unemployment in multiple states, the unemployment system is plagued with fraud. Lawmakers must act quickly to end the common schemes that are costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year,” said Alli Fick, Senior Research Fellow at FGA. “Instituting a few of the simple solutions that FGA has identified will save tax dollars, protect unemployment insurance systems from bad actors, and replenish states’ depleted unemployment trust funds.”
Many states have taken action to protect their unemployment insurance systems from bad actors, but there is still more lawmakers can to do put a stop to unemployment insurance fraud schemes.
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The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a non-profit, multi-state think tank that specializes in health care, welfare, work, and election reform. To learn more, visit TheFGA.org.
