Thousands of fake unemployment claims discovered
Thought they just had fake social security accounts? DOGE reported that they ran into fake unemployment claims. Approximately 24.5 thousand recipients, over the age of 115, claimed approximately $59 million in benefits. They were joined by folks from 1 through 5 years of age who claimed $254 million in benefits. But wait! There’s more! Another group of people, born over 15 years from now claimed $69 million in benefits. Someone born in the middle of the next century claimed $41,000 in benefits.
From Fox Business:
DOGE said that “24.5k people over 115 years old claimed $59M in benefits” while “28k people between 1 and 5 years old claimed $254 million in benefits” and “9.7k people with birth dates over 15 years in the future claimed $69M in benefits.” It added, “In one case, someone with a birthday in 2154 claimed $41k.”
The Labor Department confirmed that millions of dollars in unemployment insurance went to fraudulent recipients identified by DOGE.
“This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told FOX Business. “The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans’ stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud — accountability is here.”
DOGE has conducted similar efforts in Social Security to root out numberholders from databases who are listed as age 120 or older.
The group said it has marked 9.9 million Social Security numberholders listed as age 120 or older as deceased, with about 2 million to go as of late March.
Additional Reading:
Revell, E. (2025, April 10). DOGE finds thousands of fake unemployment claims. Fox Business. Link.
Category: DOGE, Government Incompetence, Society
And some wonder how the taxpayer is $36 TRILLION in debt. A coupla hundred million here, a coupla hundred million there and pretty soon you’re talking real money. Odd how some are bitching about DOGE uncovering this fraud but not bitching that it happened. Hmmm
It will be interesting to see who gets brought up on charges. Well, maybe after Bondi quits doing interviews on fox, then she’ll get right on it.
Nobody that I’m aware of bitches about uncovering and reducing fraud…. but people are understandably skeptical of the claims coming from DOGE. For example, they recently claimed they uncovered >$300M Small Business Administration (SBA) loans fraudulently going to children. Terrible, right? Fraud! Misery! Abuse!
… Except it seems like those might’ve actually been Survivor Benefit Annuities (SBA, again), a social security benefit paid to children of deceased parents.
Is it crystal clear either way? Not to my knowledge. But DOGE makes a lot of big claims, and to once again quote Carl Sagan, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Seems some are conflating their acronyms and then running with that. I guess when they’re desperate to undermine DOGE, anything, no matter how ridiculous, will be latched on to and used. Survivor Benefits Annuity programs are handled under Social Security, the Defense Finance Accounting System or an insurance carrier. None of these would be identified under the Small Business Administration. Unless some enterprising soul has started a small business to “help” people get the benefits to which they are entitled, and for which no “help” from a for-profit business is required. And wouldn’t that in itself be a type of fraud? Like charging veterans a portion of their benefits for “assistance” in filing claims?
It’s a hazard when trying to audit the worlds second largest government at the macro level. I’d rather they make a few easily fixed mistakes in reporting than not do what they are doing.
^This^ Many of us agree that what DOGE is trying to do, but don’t agree with the chainsaw method v the surgical strike method, but DAAAYUUUM!, we gotta start somewhere. Mistakes will be made no matter which method one uses. The key thing is to correct those mistakes and continue to root out the corruption. And with a nod to LC’s question on who’s bitching…welp, the inherwebz are full of examples, particularly in Kongress Kritters that have benefited from said corruption in either $, votes, power, or what not. I’ll throw a quote out from another learned gentleman here…
Congress bitches when things get cut – but things getting cut is not the same as ‘fraud’. If I organized a bill that awarded $50M for tiny parachutes for squirrels, and people in Congress pass that bill, and the President signs it… it’s not fraudulent in and of itself. Stupid, yes. Fraudulent, not necessarily.
Now, if I just happen to own LC’s Squirrel Parachute Factory that is the sole beneficiary of that $50M earmark, then fuck yeah, there’s likely a case to be made for fraud. But “spending I don’t like” isn’t the same as fraudulent spending.
Again, I’m all for identifying fraud, and I think most folks are, even most of Congress. But I’m still skeptical of DOGE’s frequent claims. Credit when they deliver, skepticism until then.
Parachutes are not for squirrels. Parachutes are for beaver.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_drop
June told Ward that he was a little hard on The Beaver last night.
Ward probably smiled at the memory.
. Parachuting beavers proved to be more cost-effective and it also decreased beaver mortality rates more than alternative methods of relocation
Thank goodness. I was concerned about those 76 beavers.
Indeed. Congress-creatures need only look in the mirror! We should be very careful throwing shade at Civil Servants who are just doing the job someone hired them to do. No doubt we can all find waste in government, but who authorized the waste? Congress…all of them.
We all can reflect on just how wasteful DOD is…but it is mighty handy at times to have it hanging around.
The South African hair plug & cheek bone implanter DOGE clown in chief might want to tend to his own businesses.
I wish the cabinet secretaries were instructed to take six months and then clean house. That is how things get done efficiently.
This DOGE (apparently now pronounced doggy…as in style) effort is just embarrassing.
I haz to many beers to propwrly reponz tu yor post, butr it seemx to me uo ar a littel bitcth.
Slow indeed.
What makes you think political appointees know enough about their jobs, in which they usually have zero experience, to be “efficient”?
Who’s bitchin? Only every crazed D-rat/Prog and their fellow travelers. LC must have been held hostage or been in a coma somewhere for the past three months.
And apparently ETC (SS) based on his comments above.. apparently he preferred the biden crime family..
I think the truth is always somewhat muddled. All I want is to see the actual data of all these alleged loans — and, if fraud did indeed exist, to see people face consequences.
Absent that, it’s a lot of hot air, isn’t it? I did find a link, below, where one of the people claiming that it was SSA survivor benefits walked back that claim now, but I also wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if some DOGE folks used AI to look for “SBA money given to children”, and got back the survivor benefits annuity cases mixed in with the small business administration ones. That’s just how AI works.
So I want to see the data, period. I am more than happy to give full credit to DOGE for any real savings, I just think skepticism of big claims is always warranted.
I recall when DOGE was going to save $2B. Now it’s down to 7.5% of that – 150B – in FY26. That’s great in terms of savings,… but also not what was claimed, warranting said skepticism.
Do you take the government at its word, or would you like to see the data too?
So LC, you think DOGE is just doing a google search for “SBA money going to children “? And you think does how AI works?
Come on, man.
You are running with Dem propaganda. You are swallowing the Dem talking points uncritically. Dems accuse Doge of doing that because the old folks running the Dem party have no idea how AI works. They think is a dumb browser search. Just search for key words in the database.
Then you try a nice little bit of manipulation with:
“ Do you take the government at its word, or would you like to see the data too?”
Wow dude. I hope you realize how transparent that is. You must really think people are dumb here.
Oh, please enlighten me on how AI works, Joe. I’ve got a few decades of experience with it, but I’m sure you have a lot you can teach me.
And it’s not ‘Dem propaganda’ to want to see the data. It’s what used to be a Republican rallying cry of skepticism of governmental claims.
“Absent that, it’s a lot of hot air, isn’t it?”
AKA government as usual. I am sure you will be able to find the actual data in one of our estimable MSM media outlets. Perhaps one that has won a Pulitzer prize for its investigative reporting.
“So I want to see the data, period.”
Get in line, and pack a lunch because it’s going to be a long wait. Or be prepared to do a lot of digging. There used to be a quite useful publication called “Statistical Abstract of the United States”, but the Census Bureau saw fit to stop publishing it in 2011.
“Except it seems like those might’ve actually been Survivor Benefit Annuities (SBA, again), a social security benefit paid to children of deceased parents.”
Interesting hypothesis. Now, kindly explain how Survivor Benefits Annuities funds, which is managed by Social Security, got mixed in with Small Business Association funds, when the two have exactly zero connection. Perhaps you could use a Kamala Harris Venn diagram to illustrate…
Maybe some of the DOGE folks are graduates Of Kamala Harris school of Venn Diagrams.
The DOGE folks use AI for a lot of their work. If you’ve used AI at all, it’s entirely plausible they simply queried for any ‘SBA payouts’. Again, I have no evidence this did happen, and the person who previously said it was survivor benefits walked back that claim… but because it’s plausible, it sure as hell would be nice to see the actual data they’re talking about.
Name and shame, and if there’s a common thread of folks who ok’d things that clearly aren’t on the up-and-up, indict them. But these press releases strike me as hot air. It’s like Elon promising FSD cars would be here by 2020. Or we’d have a Hyperloops giving us cars traveling at 700 MPH. Or .. well, most things about Starship, really.
It’s easy to say things, I want evidence. I will give them full credit for the things they find (and they will, I’m sure!), but I’m skeptical of government press releases absent data. I’d think you would be too.
If I query “SBA payouts” in the Small Business Administration database, that’s where the data comes from. Now, if I make that query throughout the entire federal payout database, I’ll get each and every SBA payment from each and every government agency. I seriously doubt Elon’s people are that stupid.
Rumor has them feeding independent databases into singular AIs, which is where querying ‘SBA payouts’ would indeed give you mixed outputs. This is how LLMs work in general – it’s a probabilistic matching.
It doesn’t require anyone to be stupid; it requires an over-reliance on newer technology so they can be ‘agile’.
It’s like how, for a while, asking ChatGPT how many ‘r’s were in the word strawberry. It famously got this wrong, and that didn’t require anyone asking it to be stupid.
At the end of the day, again, I just skepticism of big claims from the government should be the norm, until evidence is presented. We’ve not been given said evidence yet.
That’s not how AI works.
That’s how the free AI interface you are using appears to work, like a simple google search.
“Rumor has them…”
FFS.
I think you will understand my skepticism.
I think the bulk of your skepticism is poorly distributed. I am sure DOGE has made some errors, but my 70+ years has taught me that their target(s) is much more likely to be guilty than innocent.
Let me be clear — I’m not just skeptical of DOGE, and I think your point about there likely being plenty of waste in their targets is well-founded. That still doesn’t mean they can just claim it without proof.
DOGE previously claimed a bunch of savings they had to walk back – you know, $8B saved… from an $8M contract that was canceled. Or how they triple-counted one USAID contract. Or the whole ‘condoms in Gaza’ thing, which had the wrong Gaza.
Is there fraud in the SBA? Oh, probably. Should we get more than DOGE’s word on it? Absolutely.
“Nobody that I’m aware of bitches about uncovering and reducing fraud”
You need to get out more. Cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse” has been a political mantra since I was a child. Sen. William Proxmire made a name for himself with his “Golden Fleece Awards” to various spending abuses. Harry Truman too, as chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs.
Tip of the iceberg baby. Not even 10%.
“Someone born in the middle of the next century claimed $41,000 in benefits.”
Just say no to time travel tourism.
I heard that next century $ moola shmoola claim on my FM radio yesterday or this morning. I commented on my time Machine I’m working on but can’t get that far with time travel.
Last I knew unemployment claims were run at the state level. I know that during the COVID debacle some Nigerian prince was scamming off my never-once-used unemployment insurance.
Fool that I am kept working! How did I find out?
The child support folks called and asked when I lost my job…at least they were on the ball. No one bothered to look at the fact my unemployment insurance withholding was paid on time and never once interrupted. I serious doubt the state ever got that money back. Every human endeavor could take a 10% cut and be better off for it…
A portion of the unemployment tax is collected by the feds. To pay back borrowing from the fed to the state. Special assessments to the employers fund base when your company pays a higher unemployment rate and frequency.
It is a mess of federal guidance fingers intermingled with what seems to be state incompetency. Somehow people scam it which I clearly have no idea how to do. Never occurred to me to take something that wasn’t due me.
Commiefornia lost hundreds of millions of dollars in unemployment payments which were fraudulent during the Covid shutdowns. The fraudsters took advantage that no one was checking claims. For example, the state admitted they paid out large sums to prison inmates for being “unemployed.” Somehow, I don’t think they were able or available for gainful employment. Much of that money was paid with federal tax dollars.
That’s what happened to my unemployment account. Clearly they said pay anyone who asks during Covid. Pretty that money is long gone to the scammers…
“Unemployment Insurance is a joint state-federal program….Congress determines how much funding is available in total to be provided to state agencies for UI program administration.”
https://www.dol.gov/resource-library/unemployment-insurance-ui-administrative-funding-and-costs-literature-review
Took me less than 5 minutes.
As an employer who paid thousands of dollars of unemployment taxes to the government and yet I was never eligible to receive any of those benefits when work slowed down and everyone in the company was laid off temporally. The taxes were deducted from my check the same as everyone else’s. So I see a broken system that needed fixing from a different perspective. My payroll was scrutinized for accuracy and audited annually. So the only way fraud is taking place is from within the unemployment agency by its agents and administrators…It’s an inside job. I would like to see jail time for those involved. DOGE needs to dig deep into this theft.
This is some All-Points Logistics shit.