Just how much money in unemployment benefits did Kansas pay out to scammers last year?
That number is now in question after two separate reports this week, so Governor Laura Kelly has announced an external audit to get an accurate figure.
On Tuesday, the Kansas Department of Labor announced nearly $300 million in unemployment benefits were paid to scammers, with a nearly-even split in payouts from state and federal programs. The Department of Legislative Post Audit, however, put its preliminary estimate at up to $600 million. The Post Audit report also says almost a quarter of the roughly 650,000 claims filed were fraudulent.
The Labor Department says most of the cases flagged for fraud were not paid. It also says the estimated payout percentage shouldn’t be used equally for state and federal programs because of differences in details like eligibility. During a news conference Wednesday, the governor outlined how the Labor Department came up with its numbers.
At this time, there is no word on who will conduct the audit approved by the governor or how much the state will pay for that work.
The Labor Department has been beset by issues since the pandemic started almost a year ago. The department says it has cleared most of the issues in paying residents the money they are due, but there are still issues in that regard. Residents are also still having issues reaching the department by phone or through the website.
Last year the state paid out $2.6 billion in benefits, most of which were connected to the coronavirus pandemic.
