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1 1 (February 24, 2023)

handle is hein.crs/govekro0001 and id is 1 raw text is: S Congressional ____ ~ Research Service Unemployment Insurance Fraud: Background and Recent Data February 24, 2023 This Insight provides background and recent data on fraud within the federal-state Unemployment Insurance (UI) system. Program integrity issues have long been of concern for the permanent-law UI programs. The improper payment estimate for the UI system has been above 10% for 15 of the past 19 years. The Office of Management and Budget continues to designate UI as a high-priority program (i.e., a program with estimated improper payments of more than $100 million a year) within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The temporary, COVID-19 UI benefits created in response to the pandemic exacerbated program integrity concerns related to improper payments and fraud. For an overview of this issue, see CRS In Focus IF 12243, Unemployment Insurance Program Integrity: Recent Developments. Defining UI Fraud An improper payment is any payment that should not have been made or was made in an incorrect amount under statutory, administrative, or other legally applicable requirements, including any payment to an ineligible recipient. Improper payments include both overpayments and underpayments. UI overpayments are identified when a state determines that the individual received a payment, or a portion of a payment, to which the individual is not entitled. Fraud is a subset of overpayments and is defined under each state's Unemployment Compensation (UC) laws. Thus, what constitutes fraud varies from state to state. In general, fraud involves a knowing and willful act or concealment of material facts to obtain or increase benefits. Fraud determinations often include identifying a pattern of action or the claimant's certification of erroneous information under the penalty of perjury. Regular, state UC benefits do not employ one federal definition of fraud, yet several of the COVID-19 UI benefits did include statutory language related to fraud. Two types of UI fraud have been prevalent with regard to the COVID-19 UI benefits, as explained in DOL program guidance to states: (1) eligibility fraud, which occurs when UI benefits are received by unqualified individuals based on intentionally false information, and (2) identity fraud, which occurs when someone utilizes identifying information of another person to receive UI benefits illegally. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN12117 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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