Sen. Joni Ernst said that $79 billion in coronavirus aid fraud was easily preventable had government bureaucrats put simple safeguards in place.
www.breitbart.com
“If anyone had checked whether applicants had the correct name, birthday, or even were alive, the American people could have saved $79 billion. We cannot allow this to happen. I am proud to lead the
DOGE In Spending Act to put basic safeguards in place for government spending to effectively eliminate all improper and fraudulent payments in Washington,” she continued.
Simple questions to verify eligibility include:
- Is the SSN valid?
- If valid, does the name associated with the SSN on the application match SSA records?
- If valid, does the date of birth associated with the SSN on the application match SSA records?
- Is the SSN on the application associated with a deceased individual?
“The codes provided by SSA indicated that the identifying information (SSN, name, DOB) provided by applicants in almost 24,000 of the 662,000 [recipients analyzed] did not fully match the information in SSAs records, indicating potential fraud,” the report noted, adding a table with a breakdown by verification code."