Just learned of another scam yesterday from DIL. She works as a contract counselor for L & I. Clients, some legal, some illegal, were injured on the job, so they wisely sign up for job re-training, as often the injuries are on construction jobs that they won't be able to return to. So while they are enrolled in this re-training program they can receive "time loss compensation" for on the job injuries, which is a % of their former pay. A big part of the job is ferreting out fraud. Last week she found one who signed up for classes but instead of attending class, had taken another job earning $4,000 a month while also getting his time loss compensation checks. Another signed up for retraining, but hadn't completed his training even though the course was in its third cycle. He never bothered attending, and just got by living on his time loss checks. These are the guys who give social programs a bad name. Yet there are others, hopefully the majority, who get injured on the job, and there's no way they can return to the construction trades. So it's good to have insurance programs that cover both their injuries and re-training. I know of a couple guys who did this and became computer dweebs and became gainfully employed instead of having to go on permanent disability until Social Security kicks in.

Hmmm, not sure what this has to do with the Legislature not being able to do the job they were sent to Olympia for. Obviously they need to keep the fraud unit funded, since there's no shortage of people who will abuse the system. And maybe Legislators should only be paid their salary for the regular session. No pay nor per diem for special sessions. That would be a strong incentive to get the job done on time.

Sg