Fraud in Ohio's unemployment system cost the state more than $330 million in the fourth quarter of last year. And there could still be fraud among more than a quarter of a million claims flagged this summer. Ohio Public Radio's Karen Kasler reports.
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Director Kim Henderson says $2.3 million was paid to 2,200 fraudulent claims in October and November. But then in December…
"We identified 56,000 overpayments in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program. This equates to a total of $330 million.”
Henderson says around 100,000 claims in the non-traditional federally funded pandemic assistance program were deemed fraudulent. As many as 119,000 claims among more than a quarter million identified as possibly fraudulent last summer are still under review. Some 70,000 people have reported identity theft to the ODJFS website.