Report shows 1 in 5 unemployment dollars paid to fraud in 2020

One in five dollars paid out by unemployment departments in four states was paid to fraudsters, according to a new report released by the US Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General. The OIG looked at three high-risk temporary programs only for unemployment: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC). Those three programs, as of April of 2022, had paid out $663.8 billion in pandemic-related UI benefits. That is just for pandemic programs that no longer exist, it does not include disability or regular UI benefits. California was one of the four states they looked at for the report. Benefits for California are paid out by the Employment Development Department, or EDD.