{"id":932762,"date":"2021-10-28T13:59:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T17:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=932762"},"modified":"2021-10-28T13:59:51","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T17:59:51","slug":"blue-state-wastes-20-billion-on-unemployment-fraud-pays-out-810-million-to-prisoners-death-row-inmates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blue-state-wastes-20-billion-on-unemployment-fraud-pays-out-810-million-to-prisoners-death-row-inmates\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue State Wastes $20 Billion On Unemployment Fraud, Pays Out $810 Million To Prisoners, Death Row Inmates"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblue-state-wastes-20-billion-on-unemployment-fraud-pays-out-810-million-to-prisoners-death-row-inmates%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=932762&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>California wasted approximately $20 billion on unemployment fraud since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a report.<\/p>\n<p>State officials revealed Monday during an oversight hearing that of the $20 billion in <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/06\/10\/unemployment-fraud-covid-pandemic-half-stolen-criminals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fraud<\/a>, at least $810 million worth of benefits were given to people in <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2020\/12\/02\/report-400-million-unemployment-benefits-prisoners-california\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">prison<\/a>, including several convicted killers on death row, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/losangeles.cbslocal.com\/2021\/10\/26\/california-edd-fraud-payments-20-billion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">KCAL 9<\/a>. Other fraudulent claims came from prison guards, U.S. Postal Service workers, and even criminals in other countries, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c2020 was an anomaly, a criminal assault on the unemployment insurance program across the country,\u201d Employment Development Department Director Rita Saenz said during the Monday hearing, according to KCAL 9.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have closed the door to that type of fraud last year,\u201d she reportedly said, noting the state has put in place a new identity verification system that has stopped roughly $120 billion in fraud attempts. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/21\/gasoline-prices-california-energy-joe-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Gas Soars To $7.59 A Gallon In California Town As Prices Hit Multi-Year Highs Nationwide)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Officials originally <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/01\/25\/california-labor-department-unemployment-fraud-coronavirus-pandemic-cost-taxpayers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">estimated<\/a> in January the state paid out as much as $31 billion in fraudulent claims but the number has since been revised.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7310944\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"36\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7310944\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA \u2013 SEPTEMBER 16: A help wanted sign is posted in the window of hardware store on September 16, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThere is no sugarcoating the reality,\u201d state Labor Secretary Julie Su told reporters in January. \u201cCalifornia has not had sufficient security measures in place to prevent this level of fraud, and criminals took advantage of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To combat the issue, Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom hired former U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott to prosecute those who put in for a fraudulent claim, with investigations still ongoing, according to the report. Newsom also appointed a \u201cstrike team\u201d in 2020 that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2021-08-18\/newsom-faces-heat-for-unemployment-system-troubles-amid-battle-over-recall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recommended the state<\/a> overhaul the unemployment benefits system as the state tried to work through several issues, including severe backlogs.<\/p>\n<p>Millions of Californians were forced to seek unemployment benefits when Newsom ordered the state to shut down during the height of pandemic, shuttering thousands of small businesses. But some had trouble collecting their benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Some individuals who applied for unemployment benefits provided information different than what their employer filed, forcing state officials to interview the individuals to rectify the situation, according to KCAL 9. The system, however, has been facing a roughly six-month backlog that Saenz called \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>California wasted approximately $20 billion on unemployment fraud since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a report.State officials revealed Monday during an oversight hearing that of the $20 billion &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-932762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}