FCC: Taxpayers Footing $500M Bill for Obamaphone Fraud

"4.2 million duplicate recipients..."

6.9.2016 News Sarah Fisher

A letter sent by a Federal Communications Commission commissioner suggests that taxpayers are footing the bill for half a billion dollars in fraudulent "Obamaphone" subsidies.

Ajit Pai, the senior Republican commissioner at the FCC, says there may be as many as 4.2 million duplicate recipients of Lifeline Assistance subsidies, also known as the “Obamaphone” program.

In a letter to chief executive of Universal Services Administrative Company (USAC), Pai requests an audit of how carrier sub-contractors vet the applications for new subsidies. In the letter, first published by The Hill, Pai says that cell phone carriers may have bypassed a safeguard designed to prevent fraudulent claims.

The National Lifeline Assistance Database (NLAD) monitors recipients and allows the USAC to provide subsidies to one person in each qualifying household. But there is an exception for families that live as “Independent Economic Households” either in a homeless shelter or in a group home.

“Unfortunately, this well-natured exception to the override process appears to be undermining the one-per-household rule,” Pai said.

NLAD data reveals that an astonishing 4,291,647 accounts have enrolled through this "loophole."

The FCC discovered that 32K false accounts were getting subsidies while they had signed up with duplicate addresses and fake social security numbers.

FCC: Taxpayers Footing $500M Bill for Obamaphone Fraud | Truth Revolt