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Surge in illegal claims ramps up PUA fraud probe

By Rick Shrum for The 3 min read
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The nationwide fraud investigation into the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program ramped up last week.

A “sudden surge” in suspicious claims for the federal unemployment compensation benefits occurred Thursday and Friday, state Labor & Industry secretary Jerry Oleksiak said Monday afternoon.

He said the number of PUA claims filed from out of state quadrupled Friday in Pennsylvania to about 20,000. He said his department had been receiving about 5,000 per day.

Speaking at L&I’s weekly virtual news conference, Oleksiak said the number of claims dropped off over the weekend, “but there are still enough that we are concerned.” His office is working with federal and other state officials.

He lamented that PUA payments will be delayed for an unspecified period until new “fraud protections are in place. But we will do everything we can to keep the delay in new payments to a minimum.”

Because the probe is ongoing, Oleksiak said he could not provide further details.

A month ago, 33 individuals were charged in federal and state criminal complaints for illegally obtaining PUA benefits, established through the CARES Act. Those charged included inmates at state and county jails and prisons in Western Pennsylvania and their accomplices.

PUA was the primary focus of the brief conference, featuring the secretary and Susan Dickinson, the department’s UC benefits policy director. Oleksiak leads each session with a list of benefits L&I has disbursed since the pandemic took hold in Pennsylvania around March 15.

He said the state has paid $28-plus billion overall, including $5.25 billion in regular UC, $16 billion in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation and $5.1 billion in PUC.

For the first time since the Lost Wages Assistance program was established in early August, Oleksiak had a dollar figure for what Pennsylvania has distributed. He said it was $1.5 billion, about half of the $2.8 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding the state received through the program, established through an executive order of President Donald Trump.

LWA provides a $300 weekly benefit to workers in participating states who are fully or partly unemployed because of the pandemic. The program ended the week of Sept. 5, and provides eligible claimants in Pennsylvania to six weeks of pay, retroactive to the week of Aug. 1. Oleksiak again said eligible individuals who have yet to file for these benefits should do so quickly.

As it has for the past four months, L&I will have another weekly town hall at 1 p.m. Thursday. It is open to the public, by calling 833-380-0719 or live-streaming at https://access.live/PAlabor.

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