> The state government has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in improper unemployment benefits payment

The state government has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in improper unemployment benefits payment (Alberta Times) The Department of Labor said that Arizona has lost more than $4 due to improper unemployment benefits in the past three years...

(Alberta Times)

The Labor Department said Arizona lost more than $434 million in improper unemployment benefits in the past three years, accounting for a quarter of the total unemployment benefits. Mark Dammar, assistant director of employment and reemployment services at the Department of Economic Security, said it is estimated that nearly 19,000 people falsely report information each year, causing the Social Security Administration to erroneously issue unemployment benefits. They are trying to rectify these vulnerabilities. According to the Department of Labor, the majority of improper payments are due to the inability of Department of Labor and Security personnel to verify applicants' information. State governments require unemployment benefit applicants to be motivated to actively seek work. It seems that some people are unwilling to look for work after receiving government subsidies, while others find jobs and continue to receive unemployment benefits. To this end, the state government has taken several measures to plug loopholes. Damar said that if the information is verified to be untrue, the state government will directly deduct the disbursed money from the beneficiary's tax return. In serious cases, it will be prosecuted as fraud. From October to December last year, the Ministry of Economy and Security has submitted 25 unemployment benefit fraud prosecutions, recovering hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper payments within a week. Officials say some employers compound the problem by not updating new hires and layoffs in a timely manner.