New report reveals why Ohio's unemployment benefits system saw fraud amid COVID-19 [View all]
A new report from Ohio Auditor Keith Faber's office released Thursday dived in-depth into the fraud plaguing the state's unemployment benefits system, pointing to multiple reasons including failure of early action, lack of controls, relaxed verification rules and outdated infrastructure.
All those factors led to the system allowing for more than $475 million to be paid to criminals while another $3.3 billion in overpayments were made, said the report, which covered the timeframe from April 2020 to June 2021.
The good news is that many of those issues are on their way to being fixed under new leadership at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and new solutions being implemented.
"This is a problem that I'm glad at least it's getting better," said Faber in an interview. "But it was a problem that occurred in Ohio, and it's our job to point those things out."
Read more: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/business/employment/2021/10/28/audit-report-fraud-ohio-unemployment-benefits-system/8567486002/