A woman who hasn’t worked for nearly two years can apply for Pandemic Unemployment assistance by simply ticking the box that says “unemployed due the pandemic” in her online claim. The benefits are immediately available to her. Interviews with two people who worked directly with the system revealed that these two scenarios show the complex and sometimes unfair ways states provide unemployment benefits, particularly during unimaginable disasters. Mississippi Today did not request an interview with the top officials of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security. This agency administers state unemployment benefits. Dawna Petty, Hattiesburg server, was a single mother who went without a salary for over two and a quarter months. She even received an eviction order as she tried to navigate the mind-numbing unemployment system. “I was in unemployment uncertainty. She described it as “an unemployment nightmare.” She said that the agency initially didn’t tell her that it denied her claim because of inaccurate information her old employer had given to the agency. For weeks, she couldn’t get through to the overwhelmed department call center to resolve the issue. After successfully appealing, she received her debit card by mail in June. Yet, many others, including fraudsters have made it through smoothly. Because of the high volume of claims, increased payments, and less strict eligibility requirements that the agency applies to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applications, unemployment fraud is more likely to go unchecked in this crisis. Experts estimate that Mississippi will likely be paying millions to fraudulent claims as a result of the pandemic. Mississippi is similar to other states that have frozen unemployment payments because of widespread fraud. Matt Weidinger, the long-serving deputy staff director at the House Committee on Ways and Means wrote that the potential for misappropriation is vast in a May post for American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank. Even before the crisis, UI’s payment error rate was 10.6 percent. This led to improper payments totaling nearly $3 billion for the year ended June 30, 2019. The same error rate would apply to the huge $268 billion increase projected in federal UI benefit spending over next year. This would mean that the $28 billion missing payment would surpass all state UI benefits paid last fiscal year. Officials with Mississippi Department of Employment Security said they have received dozens of calls from Mississippians alleging that someone used their information to file unemployment claim without their knowledge. In an email sent to Mississippi Today on June 4, the agency stated that it doesn’t have an estimate of how many fraudulent claims it has paid. It stated that there are no measures because claims filing and payments are ongoing and cannot be determined at the moment. However, it promised to have them at a later time. The agency said that it was working on recouping any funds that were wrongly paid. It also stated that they were in the process to define the measures. Once this is done, it will be available to the media. Traditional unemployment insurance has a comprehensive list of questions for claimants and a process where agency employees can verify the accuracy of the information, such as by contacting their employers. The process can cause delays for legitimate claimants who need immediate assistance after losing their jobs. Shad White, State Auditor, said that there is a tradeoff between safeguards (to stop fraud) and speed in processing claims. “I’m not sure that we have achieved that balance very well.” White stated that his office will assist in federal investigations into fraud schemes in the state’s unemployment program. States have used the strategy of first providing funds to ensure that people get the help they need. Then, the state will identify and recover any excess payments. This was done in response to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina 2005. White explained that water loss can be compared to delivering water through a pipe. It is the price you are willing to pay to get it there. White is concerned that it will be hard to recover large amounts of money lost due to international or sophisticated out-of state fraud schemes. According to several outlets, Washington state was the victim of one of the most elaborate schemes. However, it was able to recover $300 million in payments to unemployment scammers. The nation’s already complicated unemployment insurance system has been further complicated by mass layoffs caused by COVID-19 and policies Congress passed to help struggling families. These included increasing weekly benefits by $600, expanding eligibility to self-employed workers and contract workers. Normally, to be eligible for unemployment in Mississippi, one must have worked for an employer that provides unemployment insurance. They must also have made enough money the previous year to qualify to receive benefits. People who quit their job voluntarily are not eligible for benefits. The department considers the wages earned in the past year before determining eligibility. This includes the three months prior to the submission of the claim. Petty was working on a contract job that she had lost to the pandemic. However, Petty had W-2 wages from an earlier job in 2019. The state then set her up for a traditional unemployment claim. Her employer incorrectly stated that she had voluntarily quit. She appealed and it took two months for an investigator in her case to correct her mistake. Because the other woman’s last job in a factory was overdue in 2018, she did not have enough wages to be eligible for traditional unemployment. She filed a Pandemic Employment Assistance claim. This does not take into account wages as it is for those who are not entitled to wages. Sources say that unlike traditional Unemployment Insurance claims, the agency doesn’t have a consistent policy for following up with employers or requesting tax records to confirm that Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applicants are correct. The claim is approved and set up to receive payments. However, another legitimate claim could trigger an investigation that could take several weeks. This is partly due to the fact that the agency lacks the necessary investigators to deal with the huge influx of COVID-19 claims. The number of Unemployment Insurance claims filed in Mississippi by people since the pandemic hit was almost 340,000 as of June 6. Separately, the agency reported that it had filed 81,000 Pandemic Unemployment Benefit claims by May 30. Petty stated that it was frustrating and unfair that others were receiving the same benefits that I received. “Mine was stuck and there was nothing I could do.” People who believe their identity has been used within the fraud scheme may report the incident to Mississippi Department of Employment Security at safe@mdes.ms.gov or (800)843-8923 or to the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General at oig.dol.gov/hotline.htm, 202-693-6999 or 1-800-347-3756.