Jobless benefits to come via debit card to help prevent identity theft

Pennsylvania will distribute jobless benefits through a debit card sent in the mail over the next few weeks rather than a direct deposit into recipients’ bank accounts in an effort to counter identity theft attempts, state officials said Monday.

The state Department of Labor & Industry has been issuing paper checks to jobless workers whose claims were approved, but will now move to a debit card “loaded” with the amount of money a worker is due, said Susan Dickinson, director of unemployment compensation benefits policy.

By transitioning to debit cards, payments can be made faster and the recipients can link the debit card to their bank account, Dickinson said.

The state discontinued direct deposits of unemployment compensation benefits a few weeks ago when it was discovered that scam artists who had previously stolen a person’s identification, were filing false claims to get electronic access to the money that the recipient was not expecting.

Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak declined to comment on the extent of fraud uncovered in the unemployment compensation system, nor would he discuss the origin of the scam attempts because it involves an ongoing criminal investigation.

Anyone who gets unemployment compensation benefits they did not apply for, Oleksiak said they are required to return the check — or the money, if they had cashed the check — to the state.

In some cases, recipients getting jobless benefits for which they did not seek thought that it was the federal government’s stimulus check, the secretary said. For others, getting the jobless benefits they did not seek alerted them to the fact that their identity had been stolen, Oleksiak said.

Since the government-ordered closures the week of March 15, the state has received 2.5 million initial jobless claims, including 512,000 claims by independent contractors and other self-employed persons, Oleksiak said.