States Overpaid Almost $13 Billion in Unemployment Benefits During First Year of Pandemic

Thankfully, lawmakers stepped up and boosted unemployment benefits at the start of the pandemic to help jobless workers who may not have had savings to fall back on. When the pandemic-fueled economic crisis first erupted, state unemployment systems were inundated with jobless claims. The GAO estimates that of the almost $13 billion in overpayments made by states, about $1.3 billion has already been documented as fraud.