Latest news with #UnemploymentInsurance
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
'Bureaucratic and wasteful': DOGE sniffs out eye-popping spending on Biden DEI efforts in key agency
FIRST ON FOX: The Department of Labor announced on Tuesday that it has terminated $400 million dollars in spending it has deemed wasteful through its Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts by rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)-related grants from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The department said DOGE had terminated all of its Unemployment Insurance (UI) ARPA grants, totaling around $400 million in savings, which it said addresses an unemployment system that has been in an "infrastructure crisis riddled with fraud, waste, and abuse." Some of the cuts from the $2 trillion piece of legislation signed into law by then-President Joe Biden in 2021, included creating an "Office of the Unemployed Workers' Advocate" and funding an "Equitable Access Director." Other cuts included initiatives to "conduct a business process analysis for equity," developing an "equity analytics dashboard," studying the "equity of the unemployment system," conducting a "DEIA assessment" and funding "equity monitor staff." Watch: Gop Senators Rail Against Staggering $4.7 Trillion In Untraceable Treasury Payments "America's unemployment benefits system is facing an infrastructure crisis, riddled with waste, fraud, and abuse," Labor Department spokesperson Courtney Parella told Fox News Digital. "The Biden administration was given a historic opportunity by Congress to fix it but instead squandered it on bureaucratic and wasteful projects that focused on equitable access rather than advancing access for all Americans in need." Read On The Fox News App Parella added that the department will continue working with state workforce agencies nationwide to focus on ways to improve the UI system to better "meet the needs of the American worker" and cut down on fraud, which has been prevalent in recent years, according to several news reports. Earlier this year, DOGE announced that it had discovered tens of thousands of unemployment claims for improbably old and young claimants that were approved in the years after 2020. Americans Grade Doge And Elon Musk's Efforts Within The First 100 Days Of The Trump Administration "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 in April. "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." The Labor Department announcement on Tuesday comes after Fox News Digital first reported in April that the department revealed $1.4 billion of unspent COVID funding would be "returned to taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Treasury's General Fund," and added that "action" was "being taken to recover the remaining $2.9 billion." According to the department leaderboard on the DOGE website, last updated on May 11, the Department of Labor ranks in the top 5 of departments that have made DOGE-related cuts, and DOGE overall says it has saved each American taxpayer $1,055.90. Fox News Digital's Eric Revell contributed to this article source: 'Bureaucratic and wasteful': DOGE sniffs out eye-popping spending on Biden DEI efforts in key agency
Cambrian News
07-05-2025
- Business
- Cambrian News
Mid Wales MP to rebel against his own party and vote against PIP plans
Speaking to the Cambrian News, Mr Witherden said: 'There are some welcome changes in the Green Paper, including abolishing three-yearly assessments for the most severely disabled, proposals on Unemployment Insurance, a billion pounds for helping people get work, no freeze in PIP, the ruling out of the voucher system the Tories desired and a 'Right to Try', allowing disabled people to see how they cope with work without losing their support.
Forbes
02-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Labor Market Stays Strong - But Signs Of Weakness Are Emerging
Business is still hiring but unevenly across sectors The new jobs report for April 2025 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is stronger than expected, even though signs of weakness are emerging which will likely grow in the coming months. Overall payroll growth was 177,000, which exceeds economist expectations (of 130-140,000). Though estimates of growth for last month were revised downward (from 228,000 to 185,000), the last two months have shown a quite robust job market. But, looking more closely at specific industries, signs of a coming slowdown are emerging, as are indicators that Trump administration actions are starting to have negative effects. Federal government employment dropped last month by 9,000, and is down 26,000 over the past 3 months. This is just a small fraction of the numbers of federal employees whose jobs have been eliminated by DOGE; but while federal employees receive severance pay or paid leave, they are still considered employed. These cuts will no doubt appear sronger in coming months. Retail sales were down by 1800, and leisure and hospitality jobs grew by a moderate 24,000 - less than in previous months. These likely reflect weakening sales and dropping consumer confidence. Professional services grew by just 17,000, and several categories - like scientific research and development or scientific and technical consulting - contracted, likely reflecting DOGE cuts to research grants and pay for federal contractors that had been previously awarded. Jobs in private education, where private college and university employment are measured, rose by just 12,000. On the household side, unemployment remained at 4.2 percent, a modest rise from a year ago (when it was 3.9). Labor force participation grew a bit (to 62.6 percent), but it remains on a downward trend as Baby Boomers continue to retire. So the overall jobs report is mixed - stronger overall than expected, but with key signs of weakness in particular industry payrolls along with flat household unemployment which has been rising in other months. And these should be interpreted in light of other signs of emerging weakness during the past week. First, GDP has dropped by .3 percent in the first quarter of 2025. While this was mostly driven by a surge in imports (before tariffs are imposed), they also reflect weakness in consumer and government spending. Second, the job vacancy rate announced on Wednesday was 4.3 percent - considerably down from a year ago (when it was at 4.9 percent). Third, a notable increase in new applications for Unemployment Insurance has appeared in the most recent data. It is impossible to know what the job market in the coming months will look like. The effects of tariffs on consumer prices, especially on imports from China, will begin to emerge, and could further reduce wholesale and retail trade and spending on services - as will weakening consumer confidence. More cuts in federal employment will no doubt emerge. Weaker business confidence will probably reduce investment activity. And all of the above will likely have indirect spillover effects on spending and jobs in other sectors. But nothing is certain. Perhaps President Trump will pull back more quickly from his tariffs than he has done so far; or perhaps Congress will pass a large tax cut - which would stimulate some spending in the economy while greatly increasing federal debt. But, with inflation averaging 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2025 (according to the GDP deflator for personal consumption expenditures), the Fed is unlikely to help with lower interest rates anytime soon. The only thing we can count on for sure in the coming months is more federally-induced chaos and uncertainty, which are not particularly good for an economy or a job market.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Yahoo
$4M in federal pandemic unemployment fraud, some in AZ, leads to conviction
A Michigan man has pleaded guilty in a federal case involving identity theft and the theft of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief funds from unemployment agencies, including in Arizona. Terrance Calhoun Jr., 36, of Pontiac, admitted to charges of aggravated identity theft, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices, according to an April 23 news release from the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ described Calhoun's crimes as a "large-scale, multi-state Unemployment Insurance benefit fraud scheme" where he and coconspirators fraudulently obtained more than $4 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance money on debit cards. Calhoun's plea agreement detailed how over a six-month period, he used stolen personal identification information and filed hundreds of false unemployment claims with state unemployment agencies in Arizona, Michigan and Maryland, according to the DOJ. The debit cards were used for roughly $1.6 million in purchases and cash withdrawals, the DOJ added. A search warrant at key mailing addresses, including Calhoun's home, that were used in the fraud scheme, yielded multiple documents with personal information and several debit cards belonging to others, the DOJ said. Calhoun could be sentenced to decades in prison and sentencing is set for Aug. 27, the DOJ mentioned. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Terrance Calhoun Jr. pleads guilty in $4M COVID-19 fraud
American Military News
25-04-2025
- Business
- American Military News
$382 million in unemployment fraud uncovered by DOGE
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced last week that it discovered $382 million in fraudulent unemployment payments that have been distributed since 2020, with the overwhelming majority of the unemployment fraud linked to the Democrat-controlled states of New York, California, and Massachusetts. In a Thursday post on X, formerly Twitter, DOGE tweeted, 'California, New York, and Massachusetts accounted for most of these improper claims, totaling $305M in unemployment benefits.' DOGE also noted that California 'accounted for 68% of the unemployment benefits paid to parolees' who were flagged by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for being on the 'terrorist watchlist' or having 'criminal records' under former President Joe Biden's administration. Prior to DOGE's revelation on Thursday, the department reported that hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment benefits had been distributed to individuals with questionable or impossible birthdates. DOGE claimed that an 'initial survey of Unemployment Insurance claims since 2020' resulted in the discovery of $59 million in benefits distributed to over 24,000 people listed as over 115 years old, $254 million in benefits distributed to 28,000 people between the ages of one and five, and $41,000 distributed to an individual listed with a future birthday in 2154. READ MORE: Video: Pentagon cuts $5.1 billion in 'wasteful spending' in new wave of DOGE cuts According to Fox News, Labor Department Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said, 'This is another incredible discovery by the DOGE team, finding nearly $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments. The Labor Department is committed to recovering Americans' stolen tax dollars. We will catch these thieves and keep working to root out egregious fraud.' Responding to DOGE's discovery last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is the head of the department, tweeted, '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.' According to Fox News, New York, California, and Massachusetts all have Democratic governors, a Democrat-run state senate, and a Democrat-run state house. The outlet noted that each of the states also has a Democrat secretary of state and attorney general. 'There's a reason for the mass exodus from Democrat-run states that have mismanaged their economies and driven residents to the nearest Republican-led state,' Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, told Fox News. 'High taxes, poor stewardship of taxpayer dollars and progressive policies continue to yield negative results, which is why Americans overwhelmingly support the work of DOGE.'
