Unemployed workers face new delays and paused payments as states race to stamp out nationwide scam

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Business
Unemployed workers face new delays and paused payments as states race to stamp out massive nationwide scam
Some states have ramped up their efforts to investigate fraud, leaving innocent Americans caught in the fray

By Tony Romm
June 12, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

State and federal investigators are scrambling to stop scammers from stealing millions of dollars in unemployment benefits, imposing a raft of new restrictions that have inadvertently deprived some out-of-work Americans from receiving much-needed payments for weeks.

The broad, national crackdowns began in May, following reports that organized criminals had set their sights on local labor agencies at a moment when they’re trying to manage the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. States including Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Washington each have reviewed scores of past applications, while halting some current unemployment payments, hoping to thwart fraudsters before they could sap any more funds.

The aggressive actions have helped some of these states identify tens of thousands of suspicious claims filed by alleged criminals, many of whom had relied on personal information stolen from unsuspecting workers to obtain benefits they were not eligible to receive.

But these states’ aggressive interventions have also swept up many people who have nothing to do with the scams. Some out-of-work Americans who had properly filed for help — and weathered long delays to obtain checks in the first place — have been baffled and frustrated to find their benefits are now unexpectedly paused.

{snip}

Tony Romm
Tony Romm is a technology policy reporter at The Washington Post. He has spent nearly ten years covering the ways that tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google navigate the corridors of government -- and the regulations that sometimes result. Follow https://twitter.com/tonyromm

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/12/unemployment-benefits-fraud-delays/

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Rump's friends are behind this, putin etal

[jimfields33]

2. Why just blue states? Makes you wonder...

[OneCrazyDiamond]

3. Millions of dollars were not stolen.

Hundreds of millions were stolen from Washington state alone, because mail service was delayed.
They also say it is hard to track where the money went because it was placed on prepaid debit cards.

NPR had a piece on it.
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/22/860656816/snail-mail-and-debit-cards-how-washington-state-was-bilked-out-of-millions

[yaesu]

4. I know my state tagged over 100k unemployment claims as fraud but they did that in the past

and had to reverse it. its fubar.

[iluvtennis]

5. Fix the systems where the fraud is happening. In California, you have to jump through a lot of hoops

to get unemployment.

You have to provide social security number, birth date, you have to provide up to 18 month employment payment history, you have provide last employer name, address, supervisor name, you have to have a mailing address and provide it to them.

CA EDD pays you with a debit card (issued by Bank of America), but you have to jump through more hoops to get it activated.

With all of the detailed checks in place, it's hard to believe some crime group could be defrauding the gov't.