Pennsylvania wants about 11,000 residents to repay money officials say they never should have received — either by an honest mistake or fraud — through the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
About 88% of the claims that have been processed for identity through the IDME verification system for PUA funding under the CARES Act may be fraudulent, Labor & Industry Secretary Gerry Oleksiak said this week.
The state said 2.2 million claimants filed for PUA. When the state contracted with IDME in September to review cases for possible fraud, claims that had been flagged previously and all new claims have to undergo the IDME verification process, said Sarah DeSantis, Labor and Industry spokeswoman. The PUA was designed for gig workers and other independent contractors who ordinarily are ineligible for unemployment benefits.
The federal government wanted the PUA money distributed quickly to the jobless, DeSantis said. The state complied and is now reviewing past claims to determine whether they were eligibile for the benefits, DeSantis said.
The state reviews each claim to determine the circumstances under which the filer lost his or her job, which will help determine eligibility, said Susan Dickinson, director of the unemployment compensation benefits policy office. The unemployed worker will be given due process as the claim is being reviewed, Dickinson said, and there is an appeal process.
“We probably will find others” who received overpayments, Dickinson said.
State officials did not say how much money in overpayments was allocated to jobless workers.
The state is required to retrieve the overpayment under CARES Act regulations, Dickinson said.
Those who are found to have fraudulently sought PUA benefits, by perhaps withholding relevant information, must repay the money with interest, according to the Department of Labor and Industry. Those who received overpayments through no fault of their own will have money deducted from future benefits, the state said.
