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GAO-18-133R 1 (2017-11-21)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacshd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: c rAO U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 November 21, 2017 The Honorable Adrian Smith Chairman Subcommittee on Human Resources Committee on Ways and Means House of Representatives Unemployment Insurance: State Use of Warnings Related to Work Search Requirements Affects DOL's Improper Payment Estimates The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program provides temporary income support to eligible workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own. Individuals who claim unemployment are generally required to actively search for work as a condition of receiving benefits. However, the specific work search requirements-such as the number of weekly contacts a claimant must have with potential employers-vary by state, according to the Department of Labor (DOL). Overseen by DOL, and administered by states, the UI program paid $32 billion to 6.2 million individuals in fiscal year 2016.1 That same year, the program had the seventh-highest reported improper payment estimate among all federal programs ($3.9 billion or about 12 percent of benefits paid).2 Currently, the leading reported cause of UI improper payments is overpayments to claimants who failed to meet work search requirements. You asked us to examine improper payments due to UI claimants' failure to actively search for work. This report describes (1) differences in state policies regarding claimants who fail to satisfy the work search requirement and implications for DOL's improper payment estimates, and (2) DOL's plans to address formal warning policies that some states have implemented. Meanwhile, we are continuing our overall review of work search requirements for UI claimants and will include the issues raised in this report and any actions taken by DOL to resolve them in a subsequent report. To examine DOL's efforts related to state formal warning policies, we interviewed DOL officials and reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and guidance as well as selected state formal warning policies.' We reviewed DOL documentation, including procedures used to determine 1 DOL certifies payments to states to administer the UI program. State UI administration payments are made by the Department of the Treasury. In fiscal year 2016, DOL certified about $2.6 billion to states to administer their programs. We refer to these funds as administrative grants. 2 The estimate of the improper payment rate is from the estimation of the following: overpayments plus underpayments as a percentage of total benefits paid, according to DOL documentation. 3 According to DOL, state formal warning policies may be derived from state laws, regulations, court decisions, and various types of state policy documents. We refer to these generally as state formal warning policies or state policies, regardless of their source. GAO-1 8-133R UI Improper Payments Page 1

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