Ernst Calls Out Potential Federal Fraudsters for Double Dipping on the Dole While on the Unemployment Roll
The Iowa senator is asking the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee to identify every federal employee who wrongfully received unemployment payments, recover the money, and fire the employees.
WASHINGTON – Over the last few years, while Iowa business owners and working families faced economic uncertainty, federal employees were fortunate to have the reliability of a government paycheck. Despite this, tens of thousands of federal employees applied for and received financial aid intended for small businesses. In addition, thousands of active federal employees may havefalsely claimed they lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, in order to be paid twice by taxpayers.
Staff from numerous government agencies, including the IRS, TSA, FEMA, the U.S. Postal Service, Amtrak, and the Secret Service,have been detected receiving jobless benefits while also being on the federal government’s payroll. Some were even paid overtime while claiming to have lost wages due to the pandemic. Others actually applied for jobless benefits from their work computers.
Given all this, today, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) – a top Republican on the Senate Small Business Committee – is asking the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PACE), which coordinates the efforts to detect abuse of COVID-19 programs, to identify every federal employee who wrongfully received unemployment payments, recover the money that was ripped off, and grant each of those who took advantage of taxpayers by collecting jobless benefits their wish to be unemployed.
In her letter to PACE, Ernst writes: “It is appalling for anyone fortunate enough to have the reliability of a government paycheck to take advantage of financial assistance intended to provide a lifeline to Americans who lost their jobs or were unable to work as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These misbehaved bureaucrats have also tarnished the reputation of the other dedicated civil servants, many of whom worked long hours in essential jobs during the pandemic. I look forward to reviewing PACE’s findings regarding the number of federal employees who wrongfully received SBA loans when the project is completed and once again encourage you to conduct a similar review to identify how many federal employees applied for and received pandemic unemployment and lost wages assistance for which they were not eligible.”
Ernst is also awarding her January 2023 Squeal Award to the fraudsters within the federal workforce who double dipped by being on both the government’s dole and the unemployment roll.
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