88 percent of unemployment claims paid correctly

The Employment Security Department — charged with handling all the unemployment claims in the state — announced today that the results of an internal audit. As claims rose unexpectedly last year, they paid 88 percent of unemployed workers correctly.

In 2008, a total of 319,440 claims were filed. The audit sampled 480 of those and found that excess benefits were paid 11.4 percent of the time, but the remainder were paid correctly. Currently, about 170,000 people receive benefits.

The department says most of the overpayments can be traced to inaccurate information from those filing claims — someone filing a claim without doing a search for work, for example. Or collecting benefits after they’ve accepted a paying job. Think someone may be cheating? The Employment Security Department urges you to call 866-266-1987 to report it.

Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee said in an announcement that the sample is small, but large enough “to show us where we’re doing well and where we might be able to achieve additional improvements.”

Lee said it’s important to detect fraud — and that the agency has increased efforts by cross-referencing their databases to those from the federal government.

The audit is part of federal requirements. A full report on all 50 states will be issued by the federal government in August.

If you’re unemployed and need to receive benefits, find information on the process here.

Tags: unemployment