North Cook News

Rep. Deanne Mazzochi said the audit report on the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) should set off alarm bells all across the state.

Mazzochi said in a press release that losing almost $2 billion in unemployment payments should have been preventable, but the Illinois state government was either too lazy, dumb or corrupt to enact basic security measures.

"Our office fielded thousands of calls from desperate residents and businesses who couldn’t get any unemployment benefits or COVID relief funds. They were losing their jobs, their housing. But on Governor Pritzker’s watch, $1.9 billion waltzed out the door, no questions asked. The Auditor General’s office described the accounting at this agency as so ‘horrendous’ that they can’t conduct a proper audit. This should set off alarm bells all across the state. Fraud can arise anytime you have online applications. While Governor Pritzker tries to blame this on the Trump administration, a 2021 Chicago Tribune investigation found that IDES failed to follow federal recommendations to use fraud-fighting tools that were both free and available pre-pandemic, and was slow in developing other processes to prevent fraud. IDES refused to use even the most basic two-factor authentication to avoid false claims and identity theft. It is ridiculous that the state spent over $25 million for its online system to process claims, but failed to put these most rudimentary, and free, security measures in place. Everyone knows that Illinois state government is a poster child for waste, fraud and abuse. The majority party’s refusal to engage in oversight and basic good governance standards is a big reason why. Our people deserve better," Mazzochi said.

Auditor General Frank Mautino released a report last week which found that out of the $3.6 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments that Illinois sent out between July 2020 and June 2021, more than half was fraudulent, Illinois Newsroom reported. Almost $2 billion worth of payments were sent to scammers. 

"Overpayments associated with identity theft and traditional fraud within the PUA program was unprecedented and resulted in fraudsters using highly sophisticated techniques to take advantage of the current economic condition created by the COVID-19 pandemic," the audit stated.

After Gov. JB Pritzker ordered businesses to shut down in the spring of 2020, Illinois saw a huge spike in unemployment claims, which, in turn, led to the accumulation of billions of dollars of unemployment debt, The Center Square reported. Although Illinois put some federal relief funds toward paying down the debt, there is still a remaining balance of around $1.8 billion accruing interest. The GAO report brought to light that almost one in five claims were paid improperly. 

“Prior to the pandemic, [the U.S. Department of Labor] regularly reported billions of dollars in annual estimated improper payments in UI, and it reported an increase from $8.0 billion (9.2% improper payment rate) for fiscal year 2020 to $78.1 billion (18.9% improper payment rate) for fiscal year 2021,” the GAO report said.

House Republicans supported using federal relief dollars to pay off the debt in its entirety. Illinois received more than $8 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in 2021, according to NBC.