{"id":3158,"date":"2024-07-15T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/innovation\/blog\/ms-industry\/how-microsoft-and-ai-work-to-reduce-government-benefit-fraud-and-error\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T08:58:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:58:44","slug":"how-microsoft-and-ai-work-to-reduce-government-benefit-fraud-and-error","status":"publish","type":"ms-industry","link":"https:\/\/newed.any0.dpdns.org\/en-us\/microsoft-cloud\/blog\/government\/2024\/07\/15\/how-microsoft-and-ai-work-to-reduce-government-benefit-fraud-and-error\/","title":{"rendered":"How Microsoft and AI work to reduce government benefit fraud and error"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An organized criminal group defrauds a national stimulus program through the use of elaborate fake identities. An 87-year-old woman receives maternity benefits, decades after giving birth. A newly unemployed worker unwittingly submits incorrect online forms and is approved for twice the benefits he qualifies for. These representative anecdotes are just a sampling of the myriad ways in which funding earmarked for government benefits can be lost to fraud, abuse, and waste.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments do remarkable work to help people live with dignity and endure difficult circumstances by providing essential benefits and resources across a broad spectrum of programs. Yet the challenge of providing the right benefits at the right time to all qualified recipients while also minimizing the incidence of improper payments is a balancing act that many governments struggle to achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping agencies and organizations to address these types of challenges is central to our work in Microsoft for Government<\/a>. We focus on enabling thriving communities and inclusive programs through technology. In the case of benefits protection, we work to help each government discover the right mix of technological and organizational innovation to mitigate risk within the parameters of their unique circumstances and requirements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Microsoft for Government<\/h2>

Help solve society\u2019s biggest challenges.<\/p>

Learn more<\/a><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t
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The rising tide of improper payments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The loss of benefits funds to unauthorized payments has long been a problem for governments around the world. In recent years, the scale and complexity of the challenge has escalated. Fraud is a particularly expensive and multidimensional problem. To offer just one example, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that the amount of fraud in US unemployment insurance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic was likely between $100 billion and $135 billion USD.1<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reasons for this are varied, and they parallel larger trends in society. A key driver is the ready availability of AI tools, which fraudsters have enthusiastically embraced to automate, scale, and generally uplevel the impact of their efforts. But it\u2019s not always a matter of criminal intent. So-called “unintentional errors”\u2014mistakes made without maliciousness due to things like administrative errors or poorly designed solutions\u2014also incur huge costs. According to the GAO, overpayments or payments that should not have been made (for example, to deceased people or those no longer eligible for government programs) totaled an estimated $247 billion during fiscal year 2022.2<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why governments struggle to ensure proper payments <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unlike organizations in other global industry sectors, governments face unique challenges in administering complicated social benefits programs. The nature of distributing funds accurately and efficiently to constituents in all corners of society is inherently fraught. Governments must contend with a set of vexing factors, including: <\/p>\n\n\n\n