The director of Michigan’s unemployment agency said Thursday there was an unprecedented increase in efforts to defraud the system as the COVID-19 crisis worsened, and that bogged down processing claims.
Director Liza Estlund Olson testified remotely before the Senate Economic and Small Business Development Committee. She said there was a huge jump in claims as the COVID-19 crisis worsened. She said many claims were fakes that had to be weeded out, some were questionable, and resolving all that slowed down processing legitimate claims.
“And so you’ve got people who are honest, and people who aren’t, which is part of what the problem is,” she said.
Estlund said the agency went on a hiring spree to bring in enough people to speed up the process.
Senator Ken Horn (R-Frankenmuth) chairs the committee. Horn said he’d like to see unemployment offices reopened for in-person visits to resolve questions.
“We should be able to do this safely and eyeball to eyeball because they don’t necessarily have the technology, the broadband,” he said. “Certainly telephone calls weren’t getting answered. That’s why we were getting them.”
Democrats and Republicans said they’ve fielded a flood of constituent complaints regarding how tough it’s been to resolve benefits delays and denials.
According to Olson, while the calls are often legitimate requests for assistance, she said contacting lawmakers’ offices is often part of schemes to push through fraudulent claims.
“These criminals have become incredibly brazen in attempts to verify their identity by calling legislative and congressional offices as well as submitting fake documents.”