Pa. unemployment claims continue to level off; state launches fraud investigation – By Ivey DeJesus (Penn Live) / May 26 2020
For the second week in a row, the numbers of new unemployment compensation claims in Pennsylvania continued to level off after surging amid the coronavirus pandemic.
On Monday state Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak noted that claims stand at 2.3 million cases since March 15 – slightly higher than last week’s total tally of 2.1 million.
Meanwhile, L&I has launched investigations into possible identify fraud involving even state residents who have not applied for unemployment compensation.
Oleksiak said the department’s anti-fraud division is investigating attempts by scammers to use personal information obtained from sources outside of L&I to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits.
He said no L&I systems or data have been compromised.
“We want to assure everyone, particularly people who have submitted information through the unemployment compensation program that none of the L&I systems or data have been breeched,” Oleksiak said. “This is identity theft from before the coronavirus. Literally none of our system have been breeched.”
Continue to article: https://www.pennlive.com/coronavirus/2020/05/pa-unemployment-claims-continue-to-level-off-state-launches-fraud-investigation.html
