Nevada gets $1.8M to fight fraud in unemployment programs

The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation was among 28 other state agencies to have received a portion of a $49 million fund from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Nevada received $1,499,400 in one grant for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and $285,600 in another grant to combat fraud in the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program.

The funds are meant to assist with administrative expenses incurred from implementing identity verification requirement for the PUA program, which provides jobless benefits for out-of-work gig workers and independent contractors.

“Unemployment insurance integrity is a top U.S. Department of Labor priority, and we are partnering with states as they innovate and apply new solutions to combat criminal attacks on their unemployment insurance programs,” Suzi LeVine, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration, said in a release Friday.

States struggled with fraud

The Labor Department said Friday that since the CARES Act, state workforce agencies have struggled to balance a tsunami of claims while administering new unemployment programs for workers typically not eligible for benefits.

The grants have allowed states have used these funds to hire additional staff to investigate suspicious PUA claims, signed contracts with identity verification vendors, and to purchase predictive analytical tools and softwares.

“Criminals adapt their fraud techniques routinely, so we must be vigilant and determined to prevent those eager to deprive unemployed Americans of money they desperately need in these difficult times,” said LeVine.

DETR has signed contracts with various vendors that have software and programming to eliminate fraud, including with identification vendor ID.Me back in August 2020.

State officials have long said the PUA program is rife with fraud.

Last month, former Assembly speaker Barbara Buckley and former leader of DETR’s problem-solving task force, said the math doesn’t add up.

“To put it in some perspective: More applications have been filed than there are people in the state’s workforce,” Buckley said in January. “That means hundreds of thousands of fraudulent claims. Nevada is not unique; our identities have been stolen and are being sold on the dark web.”

Agency leaders told state lawmakers earlier this week that DETR blocked $2 billion in attempted fraud while recovering $100 million in wrongfully paid claims.

On Friday, DETR reported that the PUA program saw saw 35,460 initial claims filed in the week ending Feb. 6. Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 1,068,112 PUA initial claims. There were 118,806 PUA continued claims filed in the week ending Feb. 6.

At the same time, the state’s PEUC program, which provides up to 13 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits, saw 62,437 claims filed in the week. With the recent stimulus package signed into law, DETR said starting the week ending Jan. 2, claimants may be eligible for up to an additional 11 weeks of PEUC in certain circumstances.

Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.