The Pritzker administration is still not revealing how much fraud occurred during the pandemic in the state’s unemployment program. Other states have announced fraud estimates. When pressed for an estimate this week during a House appropriations committee, Illinois Department of Employment Security officials said they’ve stopped 2 million fraudulent claims, but wouldn’t provide an estimated dollar amount in fraudulent payments. Republican state Rep. Marty McLaughlin said that’s frustrating, given approval of $25 million last year to help fight fraud.
The fraud amount wasn’t the only information withheld over the past year. Democratic state Rep. Fred Crespo has been asking for more than a year for specific information about unemployment call center operations.
The agency said all they can provide is a perspective of the workload to compile such data.
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