1,700 Claims From 1 Address? How California Missed Widespread Unemployment Fraud
LAPPL News Watch
January 29, 2021
The state’s Employment Development Department’s response to massive fraud was “marked by significant missteps and inaction,” fraud that so far has resulted in more than $10 billion in suspicious claims, a state audit reported Thursday.
“Despite repeated warnings, EDD did not bolster its fraud detection efforts until months into the pandemic,” wrote State Auditor Elaine Howle. The audit said $10.4 billion had been paid out to people that “might be fraudulent,” from March to December, and warned, “It is highly probable that EDD will ultimately determine that it improperly paid significantly more than the $10.4 billion we identify in this report as potentially fraudulent.”
The audit listed several lapses, including a system that allowed claimants to collect benefits even though they were using suspicious addresses. In one case, it said, more than 1,700 claims were coming from a single address.
People
throughout the state had been reporting since August that they were
getting mailings with unknown names from EDD, yet the audit found that
as late as December the agency was “allowing claimants to continue to
collect benefits using suspicious addresses because it did not establish
payment blocks for their claims.”
2 comments:
I can remember when Democrat Governor Ann Richards was elected. Affirmative Action was the order of the day. She sent a new person to take over accounts received. He was there three or so months and never paid a single bill. The damn power company showed up to a State building to turn off the power. They found his desk drawers filled with unopened bills. He was fired but given another job at yet another state agency.
They didn't miss it. They were not looking for it. The object of the exercise as far as the department was concerned, after getting burned for being too slow and unresponsive, was to shove the money out the door as fast as they could to anybody who asked for it. They succeeded in their mission, assuming that is how you define the mission. Careful stewardship of state funds was NOT part of the equation.
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