CNBC – Unemployment fraud is costing the government billions of dollars in paid benefits to people who are still working, no longer alive or are behind bars, according to a new report.
A study by the St. Louis Federal Reserve released last week found that of the $108 billion paid out in unemployment benefits in 2011, some $3.3 billion was paid out dishonestly The largest share of the fraud payments—$2.2 billion—went to people who were still working.
“It’s likely that with bad economic times, the chances for fraud like this rise,” said Yuzhe Zhang, a professor at Texas A&M University and one of the report’s co-authors. “People are struggling economically. I think the fraud problem is going to get worse.”
According to the study, individuals with relatively low earnings constitute a larger fraction of those committing fraud. High-earnings individuals, however, account for larger dollar amounts of fraud.
Read more at CNBC.
