Unemployment Benefits Double, So Does Waste

by Richard Lorenc, Guest Blogger We’ve been hearing lots about how giving money to unemployed folks creates jobs (or not) over the past few days. But how much, exactly, do these benefits cost? While we won’t have figures from 2010 for a while longer, the Labor Department says American taxpayers spent $76.8 billion in unemployment...

by Richard Lorenc, Guest Blogger

We’ve been hearing lots about how giving money to unemployed folks creates jobs (or not) over the past few days. But how much, exactly, do these benefits cost?

While we won’t have figures from 2010 for a while longer, the Labor Department says American taxpayers spent $76.8 billion in unemployment benefits last year. That’s nearly double 2008’s amount of $41.6 billion. The tally after the current push to extend benefits through the end of the year is certain rise even higher.

And so is the amount of waste. According to a new report by ABC News, the Labor Department estimates states made more than $7.1 billion in overpayments in unemployment insurance in 2009. That’s up from $4.2 billion in 2008, again, nearly double.

Double, double, toil and trouble. (Well, considering these are un-employment benefits, the “toiling” bit is questionable, but it’s all very troublesome regardless.)

Curious after reading this news, I visited the website of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the state department that administers unemployment benefits. I wanted to see the process one must go through to register for benefits. I have to admit some surprise when I discovered prospective enrollees must use some iteration of Internet Explorer–possibly the worst web browser in existence–to begin. Once king of browsers, Internet Explorer hasn’t been used by a plurality of web surfers since 2008. Firefox doesn’t work, and forget getting a check if you use a Mac.

Just goes to reaffirm the old notion of government as slow and buggy.