We have been getting many questions about unemployment fraud and are happy to share what we are doing to prevent it. Listen to Julie Dobbs explain what PRemployer is doing in the video above or her analysis of unemployment fraud below.
Since the COVID-19 health pandemic hit the United States, businesses across the country have shut down leaving a lot of workers unemployed. As a result, Unemployment Divisions in every state became overwhelmed with mass unemployment claims being submitted. Due to this unprecedented health pandemic and the urgent financial crisis of many Americans, unemployment offices began cutting the claim processes in order to send out money as soon as possible to those who desperately needed it. However, in retrospect, this was not the most efficient way to handle millions of state and federal dollars.
In addition to those legitimately put out of work by COVID-19, “fraudsters” started taking advantage of the lax unemployment claim process and began benefiting financially. It has been discovered that over HALF of the pandemic’s unemployment money may have been stolen by foreign crime syndicates. This is no small feat and poses a serious problem to our country’s financial stability and national security.
In response to the increase in unemployment fraud, states started utilizing ID verification services, slowed down the claims process, and pushed for individuals and businesses to report any fraudulent activity on their respective Department of Labor websites. As a PEO, PRemployer serves clients in many different states and we handle their state unemployment claims. However, we noticed an increasing number of fraudulent claims. Nearly 95% of the fraudulent claims we have received since January of 2021 have come directly from the state of Alabama. At this point, something had to be done to protect our clients.
PRemployer immediately jumped into action by reaching out to the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce, speaking to surrounding businesses, emailing department heads at the Department of Labor, and started filing unemployment fraud reports with the Department of Justice. With the help of Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce, we were able to sit down and present the serious issues of unemployment fraud with Paul Lee and Donnie Chesteen, two local state representatives. Within minutes, our local state representatives contacted Secretary Fitzgerald Washington and Director Thomas Daniel with the Alabama Department of Labor to set up a direct meeting to discuss concerns and solutions.
We are extremely grateful for the support of the Dothan Area Chamber of Chamber, Paul Lee and Donnie Chesteen, Secretary Fitzgerald Washington, and Director Thomas Daniel. Without them, PRemployer would not have been able to advocate for our clients as effectively as we did to prevent unemployment fraud. Since our final meeting, new security protocols have been implemented, federal unemployment is being lifted, Alabama’s DOL redesigned their fraud portal, and unemployment claims are slowing down. We are hopeful that life and business will be getting back to normal soon.
