WASHINGTON — More than $60 billion may have been paid out in fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. 

The watchdog agency, however, warned that the estimate has limitations and should be interpreted with caution. The actual amount of pandemic unemployment benefits fraud may be "substantially higher." 

At least $4.3 billion in jobless benefits fraud has been formally determined by state unemployment agencies, while at least $45 billion in payments have been flagged for potential fraud by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Inspector General, the watchdog agency said. But this cannot be interpreted as the extent of the problem, it continued. 

The Government Accountability Office report provides the latest insight into the numerous schemes to steal money from a range of hastily implemented pandemic relief programs. 

It comes a week before newly in power House Republicans plan to launch their first investigation into fraud in pandemic assistance efforts. The House Oversight Committee said it will hold a hearing on "the rampant waste of taxpayer dollars in COVID relief programs" on Feb. 1. 

The committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, sent letters to the Department of Labor and its inspector general's office, as well as the state labor departments in California, New York and Pennsylvania, asking for more information about fraudulent jobless benefits claims. 

"We owe it to Americans to identify how hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars spent under the guise of pandemic relief were lost to waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement," Comer said. 

The Department of Labor said it received Comer's letter and is reviewing it. 

A surge in fraud 

Fraud within the nation's unemployment system skyrocketed after Congress enacted a historic expansion of the program to help Americans deal with the economic upheaval sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. State unemployment agencies were overwhelmed with record numbers of claims and relaxed some requirements in an effort to get the money out the door quickly to those who had lost their jobs. 

Pandemic jobless benefits fraud likely tops $60 billion, government report says | KSL.com