$19 Billion dollars unemployment overpayments? What gives? (inside).

I haven’t read the article or looked into it yet, but just to keep things in perspective: $19.7 billion is about .04 percent of 2011’s federal budget (if I did that right). (Translating large dollar amounts into percentages is a habit of mine when we are discussing this stuff.)

If you ask the Fed, they will tell you it would cost twice that to effectively police these payments. But underpay your Federal Income Tax and in no time an auditor is knocking at your door.

I really wish they would start hammering down on the scumbags who abuse our welfare system. It’s there for a reason, it does a great thing for those who are in need.. and in the long run helps us all be better off.

Then you get dbags who steal from it to the tune of 19.7 Billion.

I think they outta offer dollar for dollar rewards to people who turn in welfare abusers.

Too bad it couldn’t have been all in one check made out to me. I’d have cashed that sucker and be laughing away on a beautiful tropical island I’d just bought.

This situation reminds me of the debit cards they gave out in New Orleans, after Katrina. I am just wondering how much of that undeserving money to people, has ever been recovered?

The watchdogs were among those laid off in the push to end “big government.”

Now that we’ve identified these bad payments, doesn’t that mean we get all that money back? Isn’t the fact that it’s caught proof that the system is working? I really don’t care if the government writes someone that is fraudulently claiming unemployment a check, if it’s caught and the offender is forced to repay and face criminal penalties. Isn’t that exactly how the IRS works? Or are they simply writing that off? In which case I’m not happy at all.

@gorillapaws I must have missed the part where even one thin dime got paid back…

I got caught up on the other side of that one. Many who file interstate claims get told by their state of residence to file in their former state, the first state pays them, and then bills them for overpayment.

Take me. I was out of work for 13 months under circumstances that allowed me to qualify for unemployment in the state I moved from only; for the period they used to base benefits on, I had not earned a dime in my state of residence. They paid me for 12 months, then billed me for the last six. I went a month without benefits, and it took two years in court to get them to drop the bill and pay me for that 13th month.

The kicker was that the first two hearings were held by the agency that billed me, and they did not allow me to ask questions or present evidence. It wasn’t until I appealed it to the level that took it out of their jurisdiction that it was revealed that the entire mess was their fault, they had committed numerous errors of law, and basically tried extorting me. And I found out in the course of this that my case was far, far, FAR from unique.

You want to know if they get their money back? Well, unless the people who are rightfully entitled to those benefits fight like I did, then rest assured that the government does get it’s money back… just not from those who it should be billing.