Audit finds more details in Ohio unemployment overpayment and cases of fraud

A state audit found changes to the federal requirements for unemployment compensation and a lack of controls led to the state doling out $3.8 billion in overpayments and fraudulent jobless claims.

There were nearly 86,000 potential instances where the payments went to someone in prison and 141,000 potential instances of money going to someone who's dead, according to state Auditor Keith Faber (R-Ohio).

The audit also said people filed for unemployment under fake names such as "Adidas," "Dummy," and "Demon."

Faber said the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services did not have the proper security system in place to prevent scams and that other state agencies need to pay attention.

"We can't have major payment systems that don't have the proper security protocols in place, that don't have the controls in place to stop untoward actors," Faber said.

Ohio's unemployment program took on a huge influx of submissions during the COVID-19 pandemic. And Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Director Matt Damschroder admits the state’s unemployment system simply wasn’t equipped to respond to the massive changes. He said the state had already begun the process of getting a new system before the pandemic hit.

“We are in the process of implementing that system that will be cloud-based, much more scalable, modern coding language and those kinds of things to be able to respond to increased demands in that system in the future,” Damschroder said.

Many Ohioans who needed unemployment during the pandemic couldn’t get it on a timely basis if at all.

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