Tag: unemployment insurance

California Has Seen a Staggering Amount of Unemployment Fraud During the Pandemic

Mary Pat Campbell
California Has Seen a Staggering Amount of Unemployment Fraud During the Pandemic

Excerpt:

After sifting through news myriad stories about California’s ongoing scandal at the Employment Development Department, however, I’m left wondering: Where is Ed Anger when you need him? I’m “pig-biting mad” about the ongoing unemployment mess, as an angry Anger might write. Yet California’s elected officials and a weary public are treating it like any garden-variety bureaucratic failure.

This is one of the most infuriating scandals ever to plague our state. The department, which is responsible for paying out unemployment insurance claims, has been incapable of paying legitimate claims even as it has paid as much as $31 billion in fraudulent ones, often to inmates. Think about those staggering losses. They would be enough to make a dent in any number of the state’s infrastructure, budgetary, and debt-related problems.

The stories are as unbelievable as the Weekly World News‘ latest Elvis sighting. Here’s a desk-pounder from CBS Los Angeles: “A Fresno girl who just celebrated her first birthday is collecting $167 per week in unemployment benefits after a claim was filed on her behalf stating that she was an unemployed actor.”

Author(s): Steven Greenhut

Publication Date: 23 April 2021

Publication Site: Reason

31.2% of Households Receiving Unemployment Insurance Report Having a Very Difficult Time Paying for Food, Rent, Other Household Expenses

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/03/despite-unemployment-insurance-many-households-struggle-to-meet-basic-needs.html?

Excerpt:

From Feb. 3- 15, about one in 10 (9.4%) U.S. households reported using unemployment insurance to meet spending needs.

About 16.0% of households that used unemployment insurance and had a mortgage or were renting reported having no confidence in their ability to meet their next month’s rent or mortgage payment — higher than the 6.2% of households that had a mortgage or were renting that did not use unemployment insurance.

In addition, about one in six households (16.1%) that used unemployment insurance reported that it was very likely that they would experience eviction or foreclosure in the next two months.

Author(s): ABINASH MOHANTY 

Publication Date: 9 March 2021

Publication Site: U.S. Census Bureau

New York Unemployment Claims Show a Year of Economic Devastation

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.osc.state.ny.us/reports/impact-covid-19-march-4-2021

Graphic:

Excerpt:

Immediately before the pandemic hit New York, for weeks ending in late February and early March 2020, statewide UI claims averaged around 167,000. Those claims almost doubled to over 314,000, as the shutdown went into effect, starting a weeks-long upward spike that reached more than 3.1 million in mid-May. The historic peak of nearly 3.4 million claimants came in the last week of May 2020. The totals from May onward include claimants under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) which provides benefits to individuals not traditionally eligible for unemployment assistance because of self-employment or certain other reasons. (Due to the PUA and other factors, the numbers of workers claiming unemployment benefits differ from the count of those officially counted as unemployed, which peaked in New York State at 1.5 million or 15.9 percent of the labor force in July 2020.)

The longstanding, regular State program of UI benefits funded by employer contributions was the only source of benefits for the first six weeks shown in the graph and continued to fund the largest numbers of claims into early August. (These payments were supplemented by additional federally funded benefits of $600 or $300 weekly for much, though not all, of the period shown.)

Author(s): Thomas DiNapoli

Publication Date: 4 March 2021

Publication Site: Office of the New York Comproller

Unemployment Scammer Spills Secrets: Illinois Easy Target Because ‘They Don’t Verify Anything’

Mary Pat Campbell
Unemployment Scammer Spills Secrets: Illinois Easy Target Because ‘They Don’t Verify Anything’

Excerpt:

“Over 50% of the claims that we receive in our office are fraudulent claims,” Eckstein said. Before the pandemic he said it was “Less than 1%.”

The bogus claims Eckstein sees are just a fraction of the fraud. The Illinois Department of Employment Security reported, between March 2020 and January 2021, it had stopped close to one million fraudulent claims.

Author(s): Dorothy Tucker and Carol Thompson

Date Accessed: 2 March 2021

Publication Site: CBS Chicago

Missourians May Get to Keep Erroneous Unemployment Payments

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.governing.com/finance/Missourians-May-Get-to-Keep-Erroneous-Unemployment-Payments.html

Excerpt:

Legislators are taking action after Gov. Mike Parson’s administration resisted calls to let Missourians keep unemployment benefits they were paid in error.

The House Special Committee on Government Oversight on Wednesday heard seven separate proposals to forgive the return of unemployment payments mistakenly given to people who did not intend to commit fraud.

Committee Chair Rep. Jered Taylor, R- Nixa, said the committee will likely combine several of the bills, some of which are nearly identical, into a single proposal. The committee would then hold a vote on the proposal early next week.

Author(s): MARIA BENEVENTO, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Publication Date: 11 February 2021

Publication Site: Governing

Unemployment System Fraud: Who’s Doing It and How?

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.governing.com/work/Unemployment-System-Fraud-Whos-Doing-It-and-How.html

Excerpt:

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that $63 billion – possibly more – has been paid out by state unemployment offices. California’s unemployment system alone says it paid out more than $11 billion to scammers in 2020. But who are these scammers? And how have they been able to collect upwards of $63 billion – including at least $330 million from Ohio? Here are some answers.

….

At least 70 percent of the bogus unemployment claims originated overseas in countries such as Nigeria, according to Haywood Talcove, CEO of the security firm LexisNexis Risk Solutions, citing data from a dozen states (Ohio isn’t one of them) that have hired his firm to help secure their unemployment systems.

A large portion of these scams are conducted by organized crime rings with names like “Scattered Canary” and “Yahoo Boys,” Hall said. “They literally just live in compounds and all they do, 24/7 is try to figure out how to trick people into stealing their identity and, you know, stripping their bank account of funds,” he said.

Author(s): JEREMY PELZER, CLEVELAND.COM

Publication Date: 11 February 2021

Publication Site: Governing

As New York Unemployment Fraud Surges, Victims Want Help

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.governing.com/work/As-New-York-Unemployment-Fraud-Surges-Victims-Want-Help.html

Excerpt:

Many law enforcement agencies are continuing to see a high rate of identification-theft cases involving individuals whose personal information was illegally used to apply for unemployment benefits during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Some of the recent cases are coming to light when individuals are receiving bank debit cards or paperwork in the mail indicating they were approved for federal pandemic unemployment assistance that they never applied for.

In other instances described by law enforcement officials, victims are learning they have been defrauded when they receive tax forms instructing them that the unemployment benefits they received last year are reportable income — although those individuals were not aware that someone had applied for or received the benefits using their identity. In some cases, multiple individuals from the same organizations — school districts, professional firms or government agencies — were victimized. That, according to law enforcement experts, could be tied to data breaches involving those entities.

Author(s): BRENDAN J. LYONS, TIMES UNION

Publication Date: 10 February 2021

Publication Site: Governing