If an aging computer mainframe and short staff weren’t enough to sift through as the Kansas Department of Labor tries to get pandemic benefits to qualifying residents, it’s having to fend off a lot of requests from people near and far who don’t deserve a dime.
The department has been hammered by fraudulent requests for months now, and Deputy Secretary Brett Flachsbarth says the nationwide and international fraud effort is “unprecedented” at this time, calling it a “dual pandemic” connected to COVID-19.
Despite the best efforts of state labor departments across the country, including Kansas, billions of dollars in benefits have been paid out to fraudulent claimants over the past year. Kansas has announced close to $300 million in unemployment benefits paid out to scammers as of late February, but the Department of Legislative Post Audit says the number may be closer to $600 million.
Flachsbarth says steps like multi-factor verification have been effective in slowing down the fraud flood, but they also slow down the process for legitimate claims. In addition, people have been waiting for the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program to make payments. Others waiting for help through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, another federal option, may see that help delayed because they need their claims adjudicated.
Fraud now seems to be concentrated on websites and social media with a number of copycat accounts starting to show themselves. Flachsbarth says residents need to look for the proper domain names and social media addresses. If they get requests for personal information of any sort, they are dealing with a phony site.
