There will always be people that will work the system. I have personally known (and still do) people that work harder at not working and figure out a way to mooch, scam, rip-off anyone from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep. It's their 'j-o-b'.

All this is the responsibility of each state to run, manage, govern and cross-check the process.

I remember 25+ years ago it was well known that a few select states had above average unemployment payouts and other benefits to the non-working coupled with relatively low cost of living in certain counties. People actually moved there from other states to what they were already doing in their own state to elevate their standard of 'living'. Wisconsin was one of them.

So were is all of this money coming from? :(

I think this was around the time I was talking with my brother who lived in Idaho. The state changed their welfare and unemployment compensation pretty drastically and there was a migration to Oregon and Washington for better benefits.

^^^^Yup^^^^^^^^unbelievable. Some people are 'satisfied' with just 'existing' off of the crumbs that the Fed, State and family 'give' them.

One brother-in-law ( My wife's brother) and his girl-friend, then wife and then ex-wife ( but they still live together) are experts. No actually not experts, after I think about it...…..Professionals.

It would blow peoples minds at what lengths that they have both gone to avoid 'adulting'. One shining example of many is where they used their kids SS number to obtain credit cards, and other accounts including numerous crap used cars. Of course never paying them off or in some cases at all. Each kid had ruined credit rating before they could even buy their own bicycle.

How 'bout this one? His wife decides that if she files for divorce, she and my brother-in-law can actually scam the system for a higher 'return' if they're legally divorced. So they do and immediately she files for child support...………

Then she files for adoption; her grand-daughter (which her daughter actually agrees to) then files for federal and state support under claims the grand-daughter is mentally and physically qualifies as a special needs kid (she's not) to collect additional benefits and money...…………...

Isn't this exactly what Shameless is all about? (haven't seen it but heard good things)

In CA we have been defrauded by about 2 billion. Even some inmates have managed to file and get UI benefits.

IDK about now, but it used to be a hassle in the 70's. I went in to UI office one day and stood in line for about a half hour. When I got to the head of the line, IIRC, somethings were checked off and the agent told me to go over and get in the other line which looked at least as long.

Now I've always been a bit contemptuous and didn't really want to be there in the first place. So instead of standing in the 2nd line I announced I would go out and make more money than what it would have cost in time for normal wages before I got through with the system and get a check.

Which I did and I've never stepped foot in that sewer again.

There's a maximum weekly amount that they'll pay, it's $535. It's not like a CEO making $10mil can get laid off and expect $5mil from UE.

< edit >
https://www.twc.texas.gov/jobseekers/eligibility-benefit-amounts

That's seriously messed up. I'm not sure that I wouldn't anonymously turn them in frequently. I'm sure it wouldn't help or make much of a difference.

I actually just got contacted by my HR department about me being approved for unemployment. I am still working! WTH.

I have no idea how the system works, and it took me four tries and an hour waiting to get someone to report the fraud to.

Somebody got $430 a week since early december till now.

What I dont get is that the pre-paid cards went to an address that was not the one I had on file. How does that work???? Why wouldnt it go there and only there?

Welcome to the club!
What I find so disturbing is the amount of folks that have been victims of this. It must be extremely easy to find and file the information needed to claim the benefits!!
Scary

True, I had that in there, but it was lost in the editing.

But the $535 is BEFORE the Federal additions.

Right, crazy how much folks can get these days.

The thread asks, "how do we prevent it," I think for folks like those in the story above, we hang them by their genitals for an extended period of time. I suspect that would cut down on it a bit.

Wow, you worked with that guy too? I forgot his name again... The dude (grad degreed mech-eng) would spend four hours deep in the rules and regulations to find a reason to not do one hour's work.

We have politicians wanting to allow people to voter without ID and illegal aliens to get drivers licenses, benefits and healthcare. Unemployment benefits is the least of our worries. How about we get the more serious stuff fixed first?
Yes this topic is political.

Sounds like you come from a bit of a biased perspective on this topic? A former college roommate of mine runs the legislative post audit office for KS, the stories that he tells me about egregious waste and spending in both my state and others is appalling. Even worse is how the legislators block meaningful change because it would impact either their or their constituents’ gravy train. Maybe WA is just the absolute enigma, or you work in an incredible government department....but I doubt it. What I strongly suspect is that if you asked 1,000 people to describe a favorable experience when dealing with a government organization, you’d be able to count those responses on one hand. Sometimes stereotypes are well earned, and I can’t name a single citizen facing government organization that wouldn’t be bankrupt if having to compete in the private sector.

More of the same ...
reportedly $10B sent out this year via fraudulent claims.

California may have paid out nearly $10 billion in phony coronavirus unemployment claims — more than double the previous estimate — with some of that money going to organized crime in Russia, China and other countries, according to a security firm hired to investigate the fraud.

At least 10% of claims submitted to the state Employment Development Department before controls were installed in October may have been fraudulent, Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me told the Los Angeles Times.

The Times on Friday said that would work out to $9.8 billion of the benefits paid from March through September.

The state has acknowledged that the department was bilked out of hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 unemployment funds that went to fraudsters, including some in the name of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Others were sent to inmates in jails and prisons, including some on California’s death row.

Hall’s company was hired by the Employment Development Department and since October his firm had blocked nearly 470,000 phony claims.

Much of the COVID-19 fraud in California and other states was perpetrated by criminals in some 20 countries, he said.

Hall said criminal rings submit claims using stolen identity information and then send "money mules" out to pick up debit cards issued by the Employment Development Department, often to vacant houses.

"When the Russians and the Nigerians and the Chinese are the players on the field, they are going to put up some points," Hall said. "This is a very sophisticated cyberattack that’s being run at scale."

https://abc7news.com/california-edd-unemployment-fraud-cybercriminal-ui/9665651/
"They ask you for a scan of your driver's license, easy enough to get, they asked you for some bank statements, easy enough to fake, fabricate," he said.

He showed us a number of phony driver's licenses including one from California. He says he can get a complete set of documents to assume an identity for under 50 bucks.

"Today, you've got 16-year-old kids that are stealing $60,000 to $70,000 a week on unemployment fraud. Typically an identity theft, one of the groups that you tend to look at are prisoners," said Johnson.

We've previously reported hundreds of inmates throughout California face charges of stealing money from EDD by filing false claims.

He says a simple check of their identities would have revealed they're in prison and could not possibly qualify for unemployment.

"What it actually boils down to is if you're looking at the data, if you're looking at the data, you can tell that something is fraudulent," he said.

Hearing all this just frustrates Alvarez.

"Giving out unemployment to prisoners and to people that don't exist and to people that are dead, I don't know how a government agency can do something like that," Alvarez said.

Yeah, how can something like that even be possible ?

Or we could fix the problems that actually exist today while working to prevent those wanting to create more problems from doing so.

I'd say 36 billion is a pretty good sized worry today.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/05/scammers-have-taken-36-billion-in-fraudulent-unemployment-payments-.html

My opinion is it can't be avoided.

So the option is either kill it altogether OR make the cost so minimal as to render it a minor annoyance rather than a real impact on taxpayers.

I can’t write a check at the grocery store or login to my online checking account with proving my identity. Even applying basic checks that we all endure on a daily basis would at least slow this crap down.

But I’ll be callous and say that if the government would just stop throwing around our money like a drunken sailor at a strip club, it would solve a lot of these problems. There are a LOT of people currently receiving government assistance that are more than capable of finding a job.