Nearly 100,000 new unemployment claims flagged as fraudulent
Michigan UIA reports dramatic increase in new claims over the last 5 days
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and last updated 2021-04-07 14:38:10-04
LANSING, Mich. â More than a year after additional money started flowing to people facing unemployment, state officials say they are seeing a huge effort by criminals to get their hands on some of those funds.
The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency says from April 2 to April 7 it flagged nearly 100,000 new claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). The large number of suspected fraud cases is part of a large increase in the total number of claims made over the 5 day period reported by the agency.
Adrienne Roberts and Sarah Alvarez
Detroit Free Press and Outlier Media
A stimulus package signed into law Thursday by President Joe Biden will extend unemployment benefits through the fall, bringing relief to the hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents who have been out of work in the pandemic.
As thousands of new jobless claims roll in weekly and the state’s Unemployment Insurance Agency works to implement the unemployment extensions in the $1.9 trillion economic stimulus plan called the American Rescue Plan, it is still working through a backlog of claims.
There are 30,000 people throughout the state waiting, sometimes for months, for the unemployment benefits they most likely should have already received.
by Bruce Walker, The Center Square | March 12, 2021 08:00 PM Print this article
Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency Director Liza Estlund Olson was grilled Thursday morning by the state House Oversight Committee.
Committee members asked pointed questions about recent revelations relating to the departure of Olson’s predecessor, Steve Gray, in November. Gray received a $76,626 payout and another $9,246 in attorney fees and signed a confidentiality agreement with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration.
“What occurred leading up to the resignation of former Director Steve Gray, and why he was offered $85,000 to keep quiet and drop any sort of legal claims?” Committee Vice Chair Rep. Rick Outman, R-Six Lakes, asked Olson.
House committee questions UIA on delayed unemployment payments, offices reopening, and fraud fox17online.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from fox17online.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A Republican House lawmaker wants to launch a task force to address problems at the state s Unemployment Insurance Agency, which has been overwhelmed by an unprecedented number of legitimate and fraudulent unemployment claims.
Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Wayland, said he is pushing for a task force to work out the issues at the agency at the end of more than an hour of testimony from Unemployment Insurance Agency Director Liza Estlund Olson, who replaced former Director Steve Gray when he resigned in November.
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The agency has processed more than 4.6 million claims since the beginning of the pandemic nearly 22 times the group s average annual workload and doled out more than $30 billion in jobless aid to more than 2.3 million claimants, Estlund Olson told lawmakers.