Welfare fraud

Welfare fraud is intentional misuse of state welfare systems by withholding information or giving false or inaccurate information.

In the United States

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that 1.9% total UI payments for 2001 was attributable to fraud or abuse within the UI program.The Los Angeles Times reported in 2010 that twenty-four percent of new welfare applications in San Diego County contain some form of fraud which was determined to in fact include all forms of inaccuracy rather than just fraud.

Welfare fraud and abuse are not as high as one may think. In Florida, from July to Oct 2011, cash welfare recipients were drug tested and only 2.6% came back positive. Which means, 97.4% of recipients were not using any kind of illegal or illicit drugs. Of the 2.6% that came back positive, most of the people came back positive for marijuana. Even the governor of Florida, Rick Scott eventually stopped pursuing people on welfare to get drug tested (Sherman).

Sherman, Amy. "Scott Abandons Promise to Drug Test Welfare Recipients." Http://www.politifact.com/. Http://www.politifact.com/, 10 Mar. 2015. Web. 7 Oct. 2015. <http://www.politifact.com/florida/promises/scott-o-meter/promise/600/require-drug-screening-for-welfare-recipients/>.