. HARRISBURG When two checks for nearly $10,000 arrived at her home last summer from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Annette Ravinsky didn’t cash them. Ravinsky, now 61, hadn’t worked since the 1980s and was well aware she neither qualified, nor had applied, for state unemployment benefits. She called the department to report the fraud, asked a legal aid attorney what to do, then returned the checks to the state. Someone at the agency signed a receipt confirming the state received the checks in the mail, and she assumed the issue was resolved.
Coronavirus Coverage But Ravinsky one of at least 50,000 people who have reported unemployment fraud to the agency since the pandemic began wasn’t told that the state would still report the checks as income to the IRS. Now, she’s uncertain how to file her taxes and fearful of being audited.