HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) announced Thursday that it has resolved more than 26,000 pandemic-era Unemployment Compensation fraud reports in the first six months of the Shapiro administration.
In addition to the record-breaking spike in UC claims over the past three years, L&I said it also received an unprecedented number of fraud reports.
Since the start of the Shapiro administration in January, L&I said it has resolved more than three-quarters of the roughly 34,000 fraud reports that remained.
At the end of June, the number of outstanding fraud reports totaled 7,863, according to L&I.
“When fraudsters targeted UC systems nationwide, they may have expected easy money. But this Department fought back by implementing new security measures and working with our partners in law enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable,” L&I Secretary Nancy A. Walker said in a press release. “Every report of suspected fraud deserves to be investigated, and that’s what we’ll do until this workload is resolved.”
The Department said it also continues to resolve the pandemic backlog of claims and has resolved more than 8,000 pandemic claims since April.
When he took office, Governor Josh Shapiro promised to make overhauling the UC system a priority and is following through on his commitment to enhance the system's functionality to process claims in a timely manner, optimize customer service at all levels, and bolster the system’s resilience during times of low or high unemployment, L&I said.
Under the Shapiro Administration, the Department said it has aggressively prioritized the resolution of a workload that overwhelmed the system during the pandemic period of high unemployment.
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
The Department’s top priority is resolution of the pandemic backlog of claims, which includes any unresolved claims filed between March 2020 and November 2021.
During this period of high unemployment, the Department received 3.7 million regular UC claims and 3.4 million Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims (this was a temporary, federal program that expired in September 2021).
The outstanding backlog of unresolved pandemic claims totaled 4,659 at the end of June – down more than 8,000 since April, L&I said.
There are no claims in the pandemic backlog that are waiting for an initial review; rather, each of these claims is pending for reasons of extenuating circumstances, according to L&I.
For example, the department said, many of these claims lack the required information for eligibility determination from the claimant, employer or both and can be resolved only through the manual process of collecting the needed information.
Separately, the Department continues to process new claims. In June 2023, L&I received 34,705 claims in its regular workload and distributed UC benefits totaling $130,963,541 to 82,550 eligible claimants.
In June, L&I served:
- 61,461 individuals through the UC helpline at 888-313-7284;
- 9,238 individuals through the UC chat service
- 16,435 individuals through email.
RAPID RESPONSE SERVICES
Rapid Response Services are available for businesses and workers in the event of job dislocation caused by a natural disaster, economic transition, planned layoff or closure through the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), L&I said.
Rapid Response Services are available to employers and employees at no cost.
For the month of June 2023, L&I provided Rapid Response Services to 21 employers and 1,483 workers – including employees of the Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County that announced over the summer its closure would affect 129 workers.
“Even when the unemployment rate is low and jobs are plentiful, companies still close and layoffs unfortunately still happen. Workers caught in the middle deserve support so they can bounce back, and that’s what L&I’s Rapid Response team is so good at providing,” Walker said. “The efforts to support workers at the Homer City Generating Station are just one example of this important service, but every response is critical to the workers, families and communities that might otherwise be upended by an unexpected closure. We want Pennsylvanians to know we’re here to help.”
After the company’s announcement of its pending closure, L&I’s Rapid Response team met with representatives of the company to gather information about the layoffs and form a plan to help the affected workers. The team scheduled multiple informational meetings to share information with workers – most of whom are members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 459 – about reemployment services, health insurance options, UC, Trade Adjustment Assistance and other supportive services.
Before the final layoffs are made, the Rapid Response team will provide pre-layoff services including PA CareerLink® registrations, targeted job fairs, and UC assistance.
Since the start of the year, L&I’s Rapid Response Services team has supported 163 employers and 8,955 workers.
