Pennsylvania Welfare Fraud Robs the Truly Needy

Originally published by the Reading Eagle.

Welfare fraud is on the rise and is rampant in Pennsylvania.

Nationally, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reported $186 billion in improper payments in 2025—a $24 billion increase from the previous year. And hard-working taxpayers fund all these improper payments.

To be clear, not all improper payments are necessarily fraudulent, but they do reveal a growing problem in the Keystone State. Between 2021 and 2025, Pennsylvania’s number of welfare fraud cases was nearly triple the national rate, according to analysis by the Foundation for Government Accountability. FGA described the commonwealth’s average fraud investigations as “one of the largest case volumes in the country.”

Read more at the Reading Eagle.