Unemployment Beneficiaries Angry At Word Of Unemployment Fraud

WASHINGTON, DC--- For the 20 years prior to losing her job in March of last year, Marilyn Smith of Southeast Washington never thought much about collecting unemployment.

"Never. Never been on unemployment, I've always worked," she told 9News Now.

That changed when she lost her job with a property management company and she entered the strange world of filing forms and trying to collect the unemployment benefits she was surprised to be needing.

There was a shock on Day One. Someone had stolen her social security number, and used it to file for unemployment benefits in South Carolina, where Smith says she has never worked. That led to a bureaucratic maze that was complicated when an accident damaged her leg, making it difficult to easily get around.

She says she is owed $18 hundred in unemployment benefits and was angry to learn on Monday that employed DC government workers were being accused of filing for and collecting unemployment benefits they did not deserve, while she still struggled to collect the benefits she says she has earned.

"This is getting crazy. You've got government officials ripping off the District. Now now you've got unemployment ripping off the District. Then you've got the employees that shouldn't be getting the money.

"If you're not entitled to it, don't take it. If you're working, notify unemployment. Let them know you're working. You're taking money from other people," she said.

"They don't care about us, the little people out here. They really don't care if they owe us money," Smith said.

She needs those benefits.

"I'm waking up every day, going outside to see if people took my car yet, because they are going to repossess the truck because I can't pay them because I owe everybody," she said.