Billions Paid in Fraudulent Virus Aid, Pandemic Watchdog Finds
- Improper jobless benefits to total $87 billion by September
- Government is recouping a small fraction of misspent aid
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Fraud or improper payments accounted for more than $90 billion of the government’s emergency pandemic aid for the unemployed and small businesses, according to a report from a federal watchdog.
Almost $87 billion will have been paid in improper or fraudulent supplemental unemployment insurance claims by the time the program expires in September, according to the report from the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee on Wednesday. That’s an increase from $63 billion in fraudulent payments reported in February, according to data from the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General.