The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Where $19 Billion Is a Rounding Error

Posted on | September 16, 2011 | 4 Comments

Where else? Government:

Nearly $19 billion in state unemployment benefits were paid in error during the three years that ended in June, new Labor Department data show.
The amount represents more than 10% of the $180 billion in jobless benefits paid nationwide during the period. . . .
Improper payments most often occur when recipients claim benefits even though they have returned to work; employers or their administrators don’t submit timely or accurate information about worker separations; or recipients don’t correctly register with a state’s employment-service organization.

Your tax dollars at work . . . Well, not exactly “at work,” eh?

When you’re subsidizing sloth, however, it’s probably unrealistic to expect honesty, diligence and thrift on the part of the recipients.

Category: Corruption

Comments

4 Responses to “Where $19 Billion Is a Rounding Error”

  1. Matt Lewis
    September 16th, 2011 @ 2:03 pm

    Why are you complaining?  That’s more stimulus for the economy!

  2. Aggie Sprite
    September 16th, 2011 @ 2:40 pm

    I do wonder…how will this error be corrected? And will the money be returned?

    *insert guffaws here*

    Sometimes I just kill myself…

  3. Ric Locke
    September 16th, 2011 @ 4:12 pm

    *sigh* The problem is that the treatment is worse than the disease and cures nothing.

    We saw this with the “welfare Cadillac” excitement. What happened to “correct” it was addition of another layer of bureaucracy and more-intrusive investigation of applicants, plus more and more paperwork. The net result is that it costs more to try to prevent that sort of thing than the waste involved, PLUS it makes it more difficult for people who need the help to navigate thru the maze, PLUS the people who are gaming the system already have the skills needed to to do that and continue. At the end, fraud and waste is reduced by an insignificant amount if at all, and the new layer of bureaucracy costs about the same as the amount of fraud, neatly doubling the wasted costs.

    Once you’ve decided that supplying money by the shovelful is the thing to do, you also need to realize that some always falls off the shovel. Entropy will not be denied.

  4. Michael Adams
    September 17th, 2011 @ 12:31 am

    My wife was overpaid, and they took it out of the next check. In Texas, at least, we have computers.  These things happen, but they are not so hard to repair.