Illinois counts more than 121k instances of COVID unemployment fraud in nationwide scam
Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Wednesday that the state has counted more than 121,000 instances of unemployment fraud since March because of a “poorly designed” federal benefits system that led to a nationwide scam.
Congress passed the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program in the spring to provide benefits to workers who might not normally qualify otherwise, such as independent contractors and gig workers.
Lawmakers built the system quickly to help those badly in need of help, opening a door to fraud, Pritzker said. Money launderers found a way to steal unemployment money through the same method genuine workers use to apply.
State officials are cooperating with federal investigators to close the opening for fraud while keeping the system available for legitimate applicants, Pritzker said.
Since the beginning of March, the state has counted 107,000 instances of fraud in the system for independent contractors and 14,500 in the regular system.
Illinois has received more than 2 million claims since the pandemic began, eight times the number received in all of 2019. The fraud problem “pales in comparison to genuine needs of assistance,” the governor said.
The employment agency first publicly acknowledged the fraud scheme in late July. Fraudsters file an unemployment claim using a fake identity and then try to have the payment method changed from debit cards to direct deposit, Capitol News Illinois reported. By filing as a gig worker or independent contractor who has no employer, they bypass a tool that allows employers to challenge fraudulent claims.
Anyone who received a debit card from the Illinois Department of Employment Security without applying for unemployment benefits can report the potential fraud online at www2.illinois.gov/ides/Pages/default.aspx or by calling 1-800-814-0513.
Illinois COVID-19 update
The number of coronavirus cases statewide is trending upward, as are positivity rates in all regions. The numbers still aren’t as high as in April or May, but without taking steps to slow the spread, “we’ll be back where we were a few months ago,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Ezike said people who believe masks don’t reduce the spread of coronavirus are wrong. She cited a study that looked at whether people caught COVID-19 from hair stylists at a Great Clips salon in Springfield, Mo. Two stylists had the disease, but none of their 139 clients contracted coronavirus because everyone wore masks and other precautions were in place.
State health officials announced 1,759 new confirmed cases of coronavirus statewide, including 30 additional confirmed deaths for a total of 186,471 cases and 7,573 deaths since the pandemic began.
Throughout the state, 1,552 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, and 368 of them were in intensive care units, while 129 patients were on ventilators. A total of 46,668 tests were taken since Tuesday, adding up to 2.8 million tests performed.
