By: Mark Glennon*
How unemployment claims were mismanaged during the COVID pandemic is shaping up as a historic fiasco. It’s therefore no surprise that the State of Illinois is stonewalling the facts about its share of the problem so aggressively.
Nationwide, the scope of unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic is stunning. Estimates of how much state governments wrongly paid out during the pandemic reach as high as $400 billion, which is fully half of the total $800 billion paid out, as reported by NBC. The latest official estimate is $163 billion lost to fraud, which is from the U.S. Department of Labor in March.
Illinois’ share of that loss to fraud is unknown because the state won’t tell us, but it could easily be $6.5 billion, which would be its share of the Labor Department’s estimated loss. As far back as June 2021, the Chicago Tribune reported that “if the amount tracks with national estimates, it could involve billions of dollars.”
For months, some Illinois reporters have hounded the responsible Illinois agency for answers. That’s the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES). But neither it nor the Pritzker Administration has provided any useful answers on how much was lost, why or how it can be stopped in the future.
The most recent chapter came last week in a Freedom of Information Act response by IDES reported by CBS Chicago. “The agency has historically refused to publicly disclose the scope of pandemic-related unemployment fraud,” CBS said, and it FOIAd for tracer reports on one particular slice of the fraud story, which is known payments to legitimate recipients that somehow got intercepted by fraudsters. CBS had to go to the Illinois Attorney General to force an answer out of IDES, and the response showed at least 1,000 records of intercepted payments.
That’s as if IDES merely threw CBS a bone. It tells us little because we have no idea how many other instances of intercepted payments occurred or how much fraud in other forms occurred, such as by claimants who were fictitious to begin with. And the CBS Chicago FOIA request only covered the period from March 1, 2021 through Nov. 30, 2021 — a timeframe in which in which CBS says “IDES sources said they began to see fraud numbers spike.” Why CBS would trust IDES on that is a mystery since the entire point is that IDES either doesn’t know or is hiding fraud numbers.
Some other states have been far more open about efforts together to get to the bottom of pandemic unemployment fraud. In Ohio, for example, the state’s top auditor estimates their fraud losses at about $5 billion and says openly, “The system failed at almost every conceivable level.” California publicly posts its data on estimated losses and other unemployment fraud data.
But in Illinois, we get almost nothing. About the only number IDES and the Pritzker Administration have provided is their unverified claim that they stopped some one million fraudulent claims. That’s nice, but what matters is how many they didn’t stop, how it happened and how to fix it.
The biggest reward that will come to states that have been open and honest about the fraud problem is that they likely will better control it the next time an emergency demands massive unemployment assistance. In Illinois, we can expect mistakes to be repeated.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Ted was on The Chicago Way with John Kass and Jeff Carlin to discuss the proposed $5 billion lakefront stadium project proposed by the Chicago Bears & Mayor Brandon Johnson, why Chicago is struggling compared to other metro areas across the country, why the city might or might not go the way of Detroit, and more.
Some Illinois lawmakers continue to deny that covid aid and other federal stimulus bailed the state out of its fiscal mess. But a look at past and projected revenues from COGFA shows just how much the bailouts blew out the state’s revenues. And now that they’re over, how much harder it will be for Illinois revenues to grow.
Election integrity – both real and perceived – is essential to government’s legitimacy and stability. Illinois, like the rest of the nation, better fix its problems now.
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about Chicago’s latest bond offering, why Chicago’s dismal home value growth is due to poor policies, the next $70 million to be spent on migrants, the 9% salary hikes demanded by the CTU, and why Illinois lawmakers voting to stop Chicago’s selective enrollment schools from being closed is hypocritical.
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/21/2024.
They probably would have gotten away with it if they didn’t force the working people to Lose their jobs!
this is a misuse of taxpayer as in unemployment tax as the corporate tax paid for employees. it reads like a slush fund with funds supplied also by federal corrupt government to crush businesses and indoctrinate people into non working dullards.
was it part of plan ? bad accounting, no polices, they can use the money as they wish. how many Illinois citizens had their accounts hacked and bank accounts drained.
DCFS and HFS (Medicaid) are in no better shape. HFS’s tally of waste and fraud in Illinois Medicaid programs far exceeds what IDES has mismanaged.
Hardly surprising when you consider that one of Illinois’ Medicaid’s primary functions is that of being a mechanism for buying votes with tax dollars.
Just as Pritzker lies about three years of balanced budgets including a budget surplus because of “funny” accounting, he is lying about one million stopped fraudulent claims. Those claims were stopped because people who had their identities stolen called IDES. Pritzker is a lying idiot and a useful tool for the left
Utter lawlessness is part of the “plan.” No individual(s) to pin it on and no consequences if they’re identified. Immunity together with uncollectability assures no accountability. It wouldn’t surprise me if this were aided and abetted by IDES insiders, some of whom may have pocketed the money. Cosa Nostra could run a better state.
Dont mean to be Debbie Downer but aint nothing gonna change,the dopey electorate in Chicago and upper Illinois will vote for Democrats again and again,as long as they get there ” fwee stuffs”,buncha uneducated dumbasses,but,oh yea,they went to Chicago public schools,no surprise there!!
We’ve been talking about unemployment fraud for a long time. Democrats won’t fix it. Wouldn’t surprise me if some of the fraudulent payments went to pensions and Democrat pockets. Can’t admit that. They’d have to confess to making mistakes and it would cost more money to fix it. A state so corrupt it won’t fix its DCFS and crime problems, education issues, infrastructure problems and energy issues isn’t worried about unemployment fraud. They are more interested in new redistricting maps and re-elections. In other words, SPENDING MORE MONEY.
And they will continue to have their way as most voters in Illinois agree. It is like Stockholm Syndrome.
The Office of the Auditor General is Illinois’ equivalent to that Ohio office mentioned in Mark’s piece. I worked there many years ago and it prided itself on being an independent body. Of course, it wasn’t, but it did conduct meaningful work to ensure state agencies and commissions were operating and spending in accordance with state appropriations and legislation. Has the General Assembly asked it to conduct an audit? Has the Auditor General himself, Frank Mautino, initiated an audit? We can’t expect the governor or the supermajority Democrat G.A. to demand answers, but the OAG could initiate an audit. Perhaps… Read more »
Republicans in the General Assembly asked for a report on it some 18 months ago. In September IDES head testified that they are “working on it.”
Sure, the group that got us into the mess is going to report back on how they f****d up and how they will fix it. The OAG should be independently working on this and, if they aren’t, they are as useless as IDES. Damn, this is just so frustrating to think about.
Both my wife and I experienced multiple unemployment fraud claims. If not for our and our employers vigilance, the frauds would have probably worked. Based on the kind of information used in the faux claims, we are convinced a data breach and/ or insider activity was needed. Our understanding is much of the fraud was international, from Nigeria.
Well,I cant fathom the idea that theres fraudulent activity within the Illinois government,no way!
***—IDES either doesn’t know or is hiding fraud numbers.—***
The disastrous combination of *not caring* and *corruption*…
In other words *The Chicago Way*…
A fraudster filed under my name in 2020 and it just happened again last week. Both of my instances were reported to IDES. They haven’t been in any big hurry to respond.
You’ll sleep better if you always just assume Illinois will be worse than the other states. Occasionally you might be pleasantly surprised when they aren’t dead last. Whenever I see a graph/chart I assume Illinois is on the opposite end from my new state (Tennessee).
Yes! Illinois/Chicago almost always the worst in the country regarding anything with a political thread. Outrageous.
I’m astounded non of Republican gov candidates are making the ides fraud a campaign issue?
Has the new anti-fraud/ verification software that was proposed for ides last fall been implemented? Does anybody in dem machine or press care?
NB, IDES brags about it being implemented in September 2021 in their statement at the bottom of the CBS article linked above. But note that they told CBS that they “saw fraud numbers spike” in March 2021 through November 21. Seems like either they were misleading CBS about when the spike happened or their software didn’t help much.