Much has been written about government abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Plenty has been said, too, about how some well-heeled businesses have snatched up government loans intended for smaller, local outfits that really needed the help. But it seems some homeowners are scamming the system, as well.

According to Black Knight, a data analytics company, some 4.75 million owners have sought relief from their lenders under terms of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and/or programs offered by lenders.

Every borrower who qualifies under the CARES Act can suspend their house payments for up to a year. The forgiven payments must be paid back, of course -- in many cases, added on to the end of the loan.

Though forbearance can be a blessing for those struggling to stay afloat, a new LendingTree survey conducted by Qualtrics suggests that most people who have received forbearance may not have actually needed it. At least not right away. According to the survey, 4 out of every 5 borrowers who applied for relief were cleared. But only 5% told LendingTree’s pollsters that they would not have been able to make their next mortgage payment without help.

The other 95%? About a fourth of them said they could have paid their mortgages, but would’ve needed to skip their car loan, groceries, utilities and other recurring bills. And although the survey didn’t say, some might have been looking ahead a month or two, to the point when they’d be out of money to pay any bills, let alone their house loan.

But a whopping 70% said they could’ve made their payments, but just wanted a break from them.

An analysis by Black Knight found similar results, though not quite as blatant. Of the owners the firm counted in active forbearance at the end of April, 46% went ahead and made their full April house payment anyway. That’s roughly 1.4 million borrowers.

Remember way back in late March, when lenders started allowing borrowers to skip payments? Relief was supposed to be for those who needed it.

“We’re operating on the honor system,” Mark Calabria, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said in a television interview at the time. “This is supposed to be limited to if you’ve lost your job, you’ve lost income ... If you can pay your mortgage, please do so, because we really need to focus on the people who can’t.”

Folks have been able to get away with essentially cheating because they didn’t have to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes to do so. All they had to do was apply: Under the CARES Act, no one needs to prove a hardship. But 70% of recipients told LendingTree they just wanted a month or two -- or three or four! -- off.

Some said they felt ashamed -- as well they should, if they took what they didn’t really need. But if their need was real, the shame was unwarranted. “Asking for help isn’t easy when you fall on hard times,” said LendingTree economist Tendayi Kapfidze.

Generally, women were more likely to feel “not at all” guilty about applying for help (44%) compared with men (25%). Almost 3 out of 4 baby boomers reported feeling no guilt at all, compared to 30% of millennials and 20% of Gen Xers.

That’s funny, because younger owners were more likely to apply for forbearance, according to the poll: About 36% of millennials and 35% of Gen Xers sought help, compared with only 3.5% of boomers. Which makes sense, as older owners are more likely to own their homes outright, Kapfidze explained.

The survey also found that while women were less likely to seek forbearance than men, approval rates between the genders were similar. What wasn’t similar? The approval rates between high-income borrowers and the rest of us. Of applicants with annual incomes above $100,000, the approval rate was nearly 89%. For applicants with incomes between $25,000 and $50,000, however, approval percentages were in the low 50s.

“One explanation,” said Kapfidze, “may be that lenders see higher-income earners as more likely to repay missed payments later down the line.”

Or maybe those applicants were just quicker. Or less honest.

While we’re on the topic of chicanery, it should also be noted that some landlords are scamming the system, too. According to a recent report by ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power, landlords in at least four states -- Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas -- have violated the CARES Act’s eviction ban.

It’s impossible to know how widespread the violations are; there is no national database of eviction filings. They are typically handled in city or county courts, only some of which post cases online, making them difficult to track. But ProPublica suggests there are far more instances of people being thrown to the curb than it uncovered.

The CARES Act bans eviction in all federally backed rental units nationwide -- more than a quarter of the total. ProPublica chose the four states based on their populations, easy access to online records and an increasing number of new cases. Since its report, several of the landlords it flagged have rescinded their eviction filings.

Whether you want to buy now, while the pandemic rages on, or wait until the all-clear is finally sounded by medical professionals, it’s smart to line up your financing as soon as possible. Or at least, do all the spadework necessary to find the best rates with the best lender.

Before you start your search, though, take a hard look at your credit record. That’s what your all-important credit score is based on.

A score is a point-in-time snapshot of how you use credit, and lenders consider it the Holy Grail. The higher your score, the lower the interest rate you’ll be offered. Conversely, the lower the score, the higher the rate -- if you’re approved at all. And most lenders, though certainly not all, are currently taking only those applicants with the highest scores.

Many credit reports are riddled with errors -- 1 in 5, the Federal Trade Commission found. Your file may contain the wrong name or address, for example, or list accounts that belong to someone with a similar name. Closed accounts could still be reported as open, accounts may be inaccurately labeled as delinquent, or an incorrect credit limit could be listed.

You can obtain a credit report for free every 12 months from each of the three national credit repositories -- Experian, TransUnion and Equifax -- at annualcreditreport.com or by calling 877-322-8228. If you find something wrong, address it immediately; mistakes can take several months to get corrected. For more on requesting corrections, go to consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0151-disputing-errors-credit-reports.

If your score could use a boost, take a look at online programs that can help. Experian has a program that allows you to add utility and telecom bills to your credit file, giving your score an immediate boost.

Some lenders offer free programs -- Score Wizard is one; Wayfinder, another -- that offer insight into what steps you should and should NOT take to raise your score. They are “what-if” programs that let you test various scenarios.

For example, bringing your credit balances down to 30% or less of your available credit is always a good way to raise your score. It shows that you use your credit wisely and are not too much in debt. But paying off years-old debt to remove it from your record isn’t so smart, because it makes the issue more current -- older problems tend to fade into the background.

Unfortunately, most what-if programs aren’t available directly to consumers, only through lenders. But there’s no law that says you have to continue with that lender if you find one offering a better deal.

Toward that end, align yourself with a good mortgage broker. There’s nothing wrong with applying at your bank, but remember that the loan officer there works for that institution alone. He or she can only offer that bank’s products.

Brokers, on the other hand, deal with a cadre of lenders and, therefore, are able to root out the best deals, whether on rates or service. Companies like United Wholesale Mortgage and Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, both of which are now back in the market, work only through brokers.

Taking a homebuying class could also increase your odds of gaining approval, and may even help you nail a slightly lower rate. Many are now being offered virtually. Education about the process isn’t just for uninitiated first-timers; the market has changed so much that some schooling is also good for move-up or move-down owners who haven’t taken out a mortgage in 10 or 20 years.

It might also be a good idea to work with a housing counselor: a financial adviser who empowers consumers to take charge of their finances. They address credit card debt, student loans and money management, as well as housing decisions, and most work for free.

The National Foundation for Credit Counseling has a network of member offices in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. Or you can go to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website to find a government-certified counselor in your area. You can search by ZIP code at consumerfinance.gov/find-a-housing-counselor.

If you are unable to accumulate the 20% down payment that lenders like JPMorgan Chase are now requiring, consider applying at the Bank of Mom and Dad. Chances are, they needed some help along the way themselves.

According to the National Association of Realtors, a third of all first-time buyers received monetary help from family or friends. Apartment List, a rental-matching service, says 27% of millennials are planning to ask for monetary gifts and loans from their parents this year. And they’re not the only ones: Clever Real Estate reports that 19% of Gen Xers and 14% of boomers ask for monetary help, too.

Help with your down payment and closing costs are also available from other sources. According to Down Payment Resource, most of the 2,400 programs it tracks are open for business. Only 34 programs have shut down temporarily because of COVID-19. And all state Housing Finance Agencies are accepting reservations virtually.

As a result of the pandemic, though, credit standards and other requirements have changed. So make sure your broker or real estate agent is informed about lenders that participate in these programs.

Just as quickly as the COVID-19 pandemic bolted across the country, that’s how fast the financing situation has changed for homebuyers. And whether the mortgage market will return to “normal” once the scourge subsides is anybody’s guess.

During the first 90 days of the year, the housing market was humming along at breakneck speed. Both existing and new home sales were up -- 5.5% for existing houses and 7% for new construction -- over the first quarter of 2019, and the money to finance those purchases was not only plentiful, but relatively cheap.

Since then, mortgage rates have slipped even lower. But lenders have tightened their underwriting rules to the point where only the best prospects -- those with the most cash for a down payment and the highest credit scores -- can qualify. And the new, stricter rules are likely to remain in place until the economy gets back on its feet -- months, or even years, from now.

By the end of April, the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage had slid to 3.23%, according to Freddie Mac. That’s the lowest since the mortgage investor began tracking rates in 1971, and down almost a full percentage point from 4.14% a year ago. Better yet, Fannie Mae, another government-chartered investor in home loans, predicted the rate would fall below 3% by 2021’s second quarter and remain there the rest of the year.

Lower rates mean buyers can choose between more house or smaller monthly payments. But that hinges on whether they can qualify -- and only the best prospects can currently do that, because of the stiffened rules at some of the country’s largest lenders.

JPMorgan Chase has stopped taking anyone with a credit score under 700. And don’t apply at Chase if you don’t have at least a 20% down payment. First Horizon Bank has hiked its minimum credit score to 670, and no jumbo loans (mortgages above $510,400) are available there or at Wells Fargo, among others. Chase also has stopped making home equity loans.

Other lenders also have tightened, albeit “less publicly,” the Urban Institute reports. And the bipartisan think tank expects even more tightening in the weeks ahead. That would be on top of what the Mortgage Bankers Association says is an already dramatically constricting availability of credit.

A look at the unemployment and mortgage forbearance numbers shows why. As of May 21, some 38.6 million Americans had filed for unemployment benefits. That’s more than a quarter of the entire workforce, and the highest level since the Great Depression almost a century ago.

As of May 18, more than 8% of all mortgage borrowers -- an estimated 4.3 million homeowners -- are asking to be placed into a forbearance plan, meaning they can’t make their house payments and want some relief. That share among people with government-backed loans is even higher, at 10%. Furthermore, many states have banned foreclosures, at least for the time being.

The record layoffs are driving an unprecedented spike in missed rent and mortgage payments. Apartment List’s mid-May report found that 31% of households failed to make their full May rent or mortgage payments, up from 24% in April. Worse, of those who were able to make their full housing payment on time in April, 16% had yet to pay anything in May.

Frank Nothaft, chief economist at data analytics firm CoreLogic, thinks the situation will get worse before it gets better. Without additional policy efforts to help borrowers in financial distress, he estimates a “four-fold increase in the serious delinquency rate” by the second half of next year.

Consequently, most lenders are being extremely cautious. “Lenders are tightening their credit criteria to account for the higher likelihood of forbearance and delinquencies,” says Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American, a provider of title insurance and settlement services.

“While it is technically possible to buy a home without human contact,” agrees Keith Gumbinger of HSH Associates, a mortgage reporting company, “it’s still not possible to buy a house without income or when on unemployment.”

That doesn’t mean you won’t be able to find financing. Some lenders are still in the market. Movement Mortgage, a top-10 lender that closed more loans in April than during any month in its history, is actually lowering its rates as well as its minimum credit score.

Elsewhere, United Wholesale Mortgage, another major source of financing, is offering rates as low as 2.5% to borrowers who work with independent loan brokers -- but only for conventional mortgages at or below $510,400. And Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, another wholesale lender, is back in the market with loans that don’t meet conventional standards -- as long as you have 20% down.

Whether the rest of the mortgage market will loosen up, either soon or once the virus is under control, remains to be seen. But when the all-clear is sounded, it’s a safe bet that any changes will happen slowly -- until unemployment subsides and people go back to work.

Next week: Line up financing now.