On July 21, 2020 the U.S. Department of Labor released Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 16-20 Change 2.
The UIPL seeks to answer a number of questions posed by states in the administration of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program and also addresses integrity issues that have been raised by the Office of Inspector General, employers, states and UWC.
The UIPL specifically includes guidance to states with respect to employer engagement and authority to seek documentation from applicants for PUA. It provides:
To help prevent and detect improper payments, states are strongly encouraged to provide a mechanism for employers to report information when workers refuse to return to suitable work for reasons that do not support their continued eligibility for benefits.
- Question: Because the state must rely on self-certification to assess eligibility for PUA, what tools does a state truly have in addressing the suspicion of fraud?
Answer: This question arises because UIPL No. 23-20 requires that a state implement the same integrity functions that it uses for regular UC to address fraud in the PUA program. While Section 2102 of the CARES Act relies on self-certification to verify that an individual is covered under the PUA program, the state has authority to request supporting documentation when investigating the potential for fraud and improper payments. 20 C.F.R. 625.14(h) refers to the Secretary’s “Standard for Fraud and Overpayment Detection” found in Sections 7510 et seq. of the Employment Security Manual (20 C.F.R. Part 625 Appendix C). The state should use the cross-matches and tools described in Section 4.b. of UIPL No. 23-20 to monitor for suspicious activity on PUA claims, as it does for regular UC. This includes the requirement to share information with the Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the strong recommendation to collaborate with the UI Integrity Center I-10 (Center). The Center, established by the Department and operated by the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, provides states with the Integrity Data Hub (IDH), which includes the Suspicious Actor Repository (SAR), suspicious e-mail domains, Multi-State Cross-Match (MSCM), foreign internet protocol (IP) address detection, and the Fraud Alert system. The Center has provided states with new tools to support data mining to detect fraud. In addition, the Center is hosting weekly calls with states, the Department, and the Department’s Office of the Inspector General to share information regarding fraud schemes and successful state practices to abort them and claw back funds, including working with banks to help with fraud detection and recovery. The Center also identifies, organizes, shares, and supports promising and innovative integrity practices and provides state-specific consulting, mentoring, and technical assistance. If a state has reasonable suspicion of fraudulent activity on a claim, then the state may request supporting documentation to address the concern. Requests for supporting documentation and a state’s investigative and adjudicative practices should be done in alignment with the processes described in UIPL No. 01-16 to ensure due process is afforded to the individual.
This UI-PL will be helpful as a reference for authority to implement more effective measures to avoid fraud, identity theft and improper payments of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
