Thousands of fake or dead people enrolled in government phone program

One in three people enrolled in a government-subsidized phone program might not qualify for the service, with thousands of accounts belonging to either fake or dead people, according to a government audit released Thursday. The oversight is costing taxpayers more than $100 million worth of improper payments per year, according to the audit by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan federal watchdog.

Created in the 1980s, the Federal Communications Commission’s Lifeline program helps low-income people pay for phone and Internet service. The federal government reimburses telecommunication companies that offer discounts to eligible subscribers through a fund made up of fees collected from consumers’ telephone bills.

Lifeline paid $1.5 billion in subsidies last year to more than 12 million households. But an estimated 36 percent of the program’s subscribers might be ineligible for enrollment, according to the audit.

The GAO reviewed 3.5 million Lifeline accounts during its three-year probe and was unable to confirm eligibility for 1.2 million.

Investigators also found that thousands of active Lifeline accounts belong to non-existent or dead people, and that the FCC has provided little to no substantive review of the program during its 30 years of existence.

As of December 2016, Lifeline program subscribers were eligible to receive $9.25 per month toward their voice telecom services, or $9.25 toward broadband costs. Eligibility is determined through participation in other federal benefit programs, such as food stamps, Medicaid, public housing assistance, Supplemental Security Income and veteran pension and survivor programs. People who make at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty line also qualify.

“A complete lack of oversight is causing this program to fail the American taxpayer — everything that could go wrong is going wrong,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who requested the GAO investigation.