HHS freezes all child care payments to Minnesota after viral fraud allegations
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that it has frozen federal child care funding for the state of Minnesota, citing viral fraud allegations.
HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill announced the move in an article on X, writing that “egregious fraud… appears to be endemic in Minnesota and across the country.”
“We turned off the money tap and discovered the fraud,” he wrote.
O’Neill cited a video in which conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley claimed that nearly a dozen Minnesota child care centers that receive state funds aren’t actually providing services.
CBS News conducted its own analysis daycares mentioned by Shirley. All but two have active licenses, according to state records, and all active sites have been visited by state regulators in the past six months. The analysis found dozens of citations for safety, cleanliness and other issues, but no recorded evidence of fraud.
CBS News has reached out to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s office and the Minnesota Department of Children, Youth and Families for comment.
Starting immediately, O’Neill said, all payments from the HHS Administration for Children and Families nationwide “will require substantiation and a receipt or photographic proof before sending money to a state.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
