Articles
Op-Ed: Stop COVID unemployment benefits for prisoners and recoup billions in fraud
Washington,
February 11, 2021
Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge) recently published this opinion article in The Hill Newspaper:
Stop COVID unemployment benefits for prisoners and recoup billions in fraud February 11, 2021 The next COVID relief/reconciliation bill must include provisions to stop prisoners from filing fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits. Congress worked in bipartisan fashion with the previous administration to provide important unemployment benefits for workers who were unemployed due to no fault of their own. It was the right thing to do, to care for American families and sustain their income while sectors of the economy were shut down to flatten the curve and meet the unprecedented health care needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Regrettably, some unscrupulous residents of federal and state prisons gamed the system, exploited the relaxed eligibility determinations, were put on state unemployment rolls, and received billions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment benefits. While many states had procedures in place to prevent such fraud by checking unemployment rolls against prison rolls, some states did not. Read the full article HERE. |