{"id":2971,"date":"2020-11-25T15:18:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T15:18:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971"},"modified":"2020-12-14T15:21:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T15:21:23","slug":"spike-in-unemployment-claims-led-to-greater-fraud-risks-uia-says-as-it-releases-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971","title":{"rendered":"Spike in unemployment claims led to greater fraud risks, UIA says as it releases report"},"content":{"rendered":"

With record levels of unemployment claims filed, the potential for fraud naturally rose this year, state labor officials said as they released a report from a consulting firm this week.<\/p>\n

While fraud risks increased, so did mitigation efforts from the state\u2019s Unemployment Insurance Agency,\u00a0according to the report prepared by Deloitte. The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity contracted Deloitte in July to assist with the development of fraud prevention measures.<\/p>\n

The report found that UIA processed about 2.8 million unique claims since the first surge of COVID-19 in March, \u201chandling as many claims in seven months as it would normally see in six years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
At one point in mid-June, the UIA flagged 340,000 unemployment claims as potentially fraudulent.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
That prompted the agency to pursue \u201caggressive measures\u201d to \u201caddress these vulnerabilities,\u201d said UIA Acting Director Liza Estlund Olson.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cWhile the Agency\u2019s previous decisions sought to balance fraud prevention and timely payment to eligible claimants, we strongly agree with the report\u2019s findings that policy, technological and organizational changes increased the Agency\u2019s potential exposure to fraud,\u201d Olson said in a release. \u201cBy releasing this report, our hope is that the public will better understand the aggressive measures UIA took to address these vulnerabilities. Our work isn\u2019t done, and the UIA will continue to review our operations and organization to prevent criminals from accessing the unemployment benefits our hardworking families deserve.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
State Rep. Matt Hall, R-Marshall, has been one of the harsher critics of the UIA during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing in former director Steve Gray for hearings in front of the House Oversight Committee on several occasions. Hall said the new report has validated some concerns brought to him by constituents.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been asking questions about this \u2013 whether the agency thought its actions have contributed, if their fraud detection tools were altered and if those alterations impacted the agency\u2019s effectiveness, and what the department is doing to make sure our state\u2019s unemployment system is protected and efficient,\u201d Hall said in a statement. \u201cI have gotten few answers until today, when we discovered that their actions did contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
The number of weekly claims reached as high as 388,000 in the spring, compared to the previous record of 77,000 during the Great Recession, state officials said. The agency doled out more than $26B in benefits to about 2.2 million workers this year, roughly 97% of potentially eligible claimants, the release stated.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The first measure to combat fraud was hiring former U.S. Secret Service special agent Jeffrey Frost to advise on countering criminal hacks of the state\u2019s unemployment system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen unemployed Michigan workers needed emergency financial assistance the most, criminals began filing malicious claims in an attempt to take advantage of a global pandemic,\u201d Frost said. \u201cLaw enforcement and the UIA took action to identify the fraud and malicious filings to investigate crimes against the unemployment system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With record levels of unemployment claims filed, the potential for fraud naturally rose this year, state labor officials…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSpike in unemployment claims led to greater fraud risks, UIA says as it releases report - Lansing Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spike in unemployment claims led to greater fraud risks, UIA says as it releases report - Lansing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With record levels of unemployment claims filed, the potential for fraud naturally rose this year, state labor officials…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lansing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-25T15:18:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-14T15:21:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/QGT76FNESRF3VP2YMNK5NOSQHQ.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Theona Miller\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/\",\"name\":\"Lansing Report\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/QGT76FNESRF3VP2YMNK5NOSQHQ.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":900},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971\",\"name\":\"Spike in unemployment claims led to greater fraud risks, UIA says as it releases report - Lansing Report\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-25T15:18:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-14T15:21:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6888a5f573aaec6c17a232d2cf444ab4\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/?p=2971\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6888a5f573aaec6c17a232d2cf444ab4\",\"name\":\"Theona Miller\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2973,"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions\/2973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peoriamag.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}