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New unemployment claims drop a bit nationally, down substantially in Illinois

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Illinois

* I did not get to this yesterday. Sorry about that. Here’s CBS 2…

The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) reported 40,008 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of Jan. 25 in Illinois, a 58% decrease from the week before, when 95,481 people filed claims.

For comparison, during the same timeframe last year 9,762 people filed claims in Illinois. That’s a 309% increase. […]

There were 95,472 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of Jan 11 in Illinois.

There were 94,944 new unemployment claims filed during the week of Jan. 4 in Illinois.

There were 45,387 new unemployment claims were filed during the week of Dec. 27 in Illinois.

There were 110,486 claims filed in Illinois the week of Dec. 20.

* Capitol News Illinois…

The Illinois job market also outperformed the U.S. labor market during the week. Nationwide, according to U.S. Department of Labor numbers, first-time jobless claims fell 2.8%, to 816,247.

* AP…

The federal government, as part of its $2 trillion relief package approved in March, significantly expanded jobless aid, making it a richer target for fraud. By November, states across the country said they had paid as much as $36 billion in improper benefits, with a significant portion obtained through fraud, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General.

The fraud is so widespread that California issued payments to someone using the name of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and in Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, his wife, Fran, and Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted all learned that fraudulent claims were filed in their names.

Now, unemployment agencies could face another onslaught — this time from people requesting corrected tax forms.

“It does open a can of worms,” said Rob Seltzer, a certified public accountant in Los Angeles and a member of the California Society of CPAs. “It really depends upon how fast the (state) is able to send out a corrected form.”

I sure hope IDOR is prepared for this.

* Related…

* Illinois begins rolling out another 11 weeks of unemployment benefits to gig, self-employed workers

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:19 am

Comments

I wonder if the unemployment drop is related to the lapse in unemployment compensation due to DC politics.

Comment by H-W Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:35 am
How is this fraud not caught, every false claim has a paper/computer/mail trail? Come on law enforcement, do better.

Comment by Rutro Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:44 am
Three months and IDES still hasn’t responded to our online report that a false claim was filed in my wife’s name. Since then we got the notice of overpayment. Now we are waiting for IDES to decide to report it as taxable income.

Comment by Anon Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:57 am
As a former employee, expect the number of known fraud claims to jump significantly over the next several weeks as 1099-G’s are mailed out. There has to be a significant population of fraud victims that had no idea a claim had been filed in their names.

Comment by Bothanspy Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 11:52 am
- Rutro - Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 10:44 am:

How is this fraud not caught, every false claim has a paper/computer/mail trail? Come on law enforcement, do better.

Lol…..because law enforcement. The system has flaws which are being exploited. The responsibility falls on those administering the benefits to fix the process.

Comment by Comment watcher Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 12:00 pm
After I left a voice mail for DES alerting them to fraud, I did get a call back after about a week where they took my information told me how to alert the feds of ID theft.

They did send me notice a claim had been denied under my name.

The DES staffer I spoke with was good to work with but sounded like they had been beat over the head for hours. I thanked them for getting back with me and they said, “thanks, we don’t hear that word a lot”.

Comment by Give Me A Break Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 1:04 pm
Too bad it’s still taking not weeks but months to get a response from IDES by let alone actual benefits.

Comment by Downstate Illinois Friday, Feb 5, 21 @ 3:18 pm