The Indiana Department of Workforce Development announced Friday it began paying people federal unemployment after Gov. Eric Holcomb unsuccessfully tried to end the program.
So far, the agency has paid 25,000 people and expects that more than 100,000 Hoosiers will file for those benefits.In an attempt to drive people back to work, Holcomb tried to end the benefits in June, about three months before the funding expires in September.
But a legal challenge to the decision resulted in a judge’s requiring the state to continue paying out these benefits temporarily as the case is heard in court.
Since the pandemic began, the state agency has been overwhelmed with the sudden surge in unemployment claims and numerous problems, such as short staffing, people waiting months to a year for payments, scammers attacking the system and legitimate applications getting caught up in the fraud prevention system.
“Getting to where we are today came with some challenges,” said DWD Commissioner Fred Payne.
In the press conference Friday, Payne and other state officials answered questions about the restart of the federal program, payment problems and fraud.
Here’s what we learned from the press conference:
- Even though the case is still in court, once the payments go out, the agency won’t be seeking a return in payment no matter the court decision.
- Peoplewho got overpayment notices can apply for a waiver, Payne said.
- The state estimates it has paid out $8.1 million in fraud payments. It’s unclear how much of that went to scammers and hackers and how much went to people who are in disputes with the agency over whether they’re eligible.
- More than 25% of people who go through Id.me, the company that verifies the identity of applicants, are identified as fraudulent. Worker advocates have said some of those people just don’t know how to use the program due to problems like unfamiliarity with the technology or language barriers.
- While Payne acknowledges that the fraud prevention methods have slowed legitimate applications, he said the agency’s measures have blocked more than $236 million in fraud payments. It’s unclear if those payments include people with legitimate applications.
- Since the start of the pandemic, more than $8.6 billion in benefits to 875,000 people have been paid out. However, including applications flagged for fraud, there are 1.3 million weekly pending claims from the last week in February 2020 to the end of October 2020, according to the Department of Workforce Development data. The state has not provided an update on how many claims are pending and how many people are awaiting a decision and or payment.
- The unemployment rate is down from a year ago at this time to 4.1%. Much of the current unemployment is due to people seeking work but who have not yet found their job of choice, Payne said. The size of the labor force also shrunk. The lower unemployment rate also may reflect fewer people looking for work and more people dropping out of the labor force.
- Payne also took the opportunity to remind people about fraudulent text messages. He said the DWD will not text people.
Contact IndyStar reporter Binghui Huang at 317-385-1595 or Bhuang@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @Binghuihuang
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