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(by NY Post and FoxBusiness) – The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) on Wednesday said that it discovered tens of thousands of unemployment claims for improbably old and young claimants were approved in the years after 2020.
A DOGE post on X noted that its initial review of unemployment insurance claims since 2020 revealed a significant number of unemployment claims from people over 115 years old and between the ages of 1 and 5.
DOGE announced 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.”
At a Thursday afternoon cabinet meeting, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer presented the findings to President Trump, saying “we’re working with our [inspectors general] … [to] return those dollars to the Treasury.”
Elon Musk wrote in a post on X: “Your tax dollars were going to pay fraudulent unemployment claims for fake people born in the future! This is so crazy that I had to read it several times before it sank in,” he added.
The Labor Department did not immediately respond to a request for more detailed information about the alleged malfeasance.
Chavez-DeRemer’s predecessor, President Biden’s acting labor secretary Julie Su, was dogged by allegations of gross mismanagement of California’s unemployment system during the Covid pandemic, which sent an estimated $30-40 billion in payments to fraudsters.
Compiled from reports at NY Post and FoxBusiness on April 10. Reprinted here for educational purposes only. May not be reproduced on other websites without permission.
Questions
1. In what federal agency did DOGE find tens of thousands of fraudulent unemployment claims?
2. From what year did DOGE conduct an initial review of unemployment insurance claims?
3. a) Define improbable.
b) What makes these fraudulent claims improbable?
4. Describe the fraud the DOGE team found in its initial review of unemployment claims.
5. What is Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer doing with the DOGE findings?
6. Why do you think this news story that is important to the public is not widely reported?
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