Woman collected $145,000 in jobless benefits using names of death row inmates Scott Peterson, Cary Stayner, and William Johnson. – (LakersDaily.com)
California’s $1 billion unemployment program is the largest welfare program in the US.
It is also the single largest cash program in the US.
Of course, if you make $10,000 a year, you don’t qualify for unemployment assistance.
But unemployed people with little or no previous work history can collect unemployment benefits – up to 99 weeks – all on the strength of the Social Security Number of a deceased person.
That’s right – dead people get unemployment benefits.
Of course, a dead person is not an eligible for Social Security and federal benefits because they have no “identifiable earnings record.”
So, if you make less than $15,000 a year, you must have proof of a job. But, if you make more, you don’t need to show any evidence of work history.
Why are these dead people getting free money?
The obvious answer is that it is a way to get rid of dead people.
No one’s going to get rid of me. Just give me money and let me go. It’s that simple.
This is the policy behind the $1 billion in unemployment benefits to unemployed Californians with the deceased social security number.
But it isn’t just Social Security number fraud that this program perpetuates.
As the Times explained in 2008,
“The program has been a boon to the state’s economy, boosting overall employment among younger people and giving many a new opportunity to work. As a result, California has added 300,000 new jobs over the past five years, according to an analysis by the state Employment Development Department. “The program has also created more than 10,000 businesses for local job seekers to start, a substantial increase from the 2,300 businesses created under the program in 2005, the study showed. “The unemployment benefit program has become a model for many states, which employ more young people and have lower tax rates than other states.”
The unemployment benefits are paid for by the Social Security Trust Fund. To find out who pays for the “extra” benefits, you need to know the Social Security