In the last week, while I was on vacation, I heard from two Pastor’s whose information was used to send an unemployment claim to the church.
It’s important for a church to open any mail from the NY Department of Labor. The church itself can only dispute the claim by mail of fax. The individual on the claim needs to fill in a form online.
Excerpt from NEWSDAY
By Victor Ocasio
Updated February 2, 2021 7:14 PM
More than $5.5 billion in unemployment aid payments have been kept out of the hands of fraudsters throughout the pandemic, according to the state Labor Department.
The agency, which handles the processing and evaluation of jobless claims across the state, said it has identified over 425,000 fraudulent jobless claims since March and that "hundreds of thousands of fraud cases" have been referred to federal prosecutors. The state is working with law enforcement at all levels to hold criminals to account, the department said.
Unemployment expert Michele Evermore, senior policy analyst with the National Employment Law Project, said unemployment fraud has become a major issue for state agencies across the country.
Evermore said that because not every state is providing detailed data on their fight with fraud it’s hard to know how each state is faring, but that New York is doing a better job than many
"Some of the agencies that have done a really good job are New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington state," Evermore said. "It’s a very real threat."
The New York Labor Department said that a "vast majority" of the criminal claims were identified before any aid was paid out.
"Unemployment fraud is — sadly — a scourge that we have to fight every day, but it is particularly despicable that criminals would use a global pandemic as cover to attempt to defraud our system," state Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said in a statement. "These benefits have been a lifeline for millions of New Yorkers over the last year, and every day our Office of Special Investigations is working to protect our system from fraud and abuse."
Using the identities of real New Yorkers likely stolen during past data breaches of banks, insurance companies and other large employers, fraudsters have filed unemployment claims and illegally collected benefits in the name of residents who are not unemployed, the state said in a news release Tuesday.
Fraudsters can use up the benefits workers would be entitled to if they became unemployed, and victims could be subject to an unexpected income tax bill on benefits they never received
To help combat the problem, the Labor Department and the Department of Financial Services launched a public service announcement campaign last year meant to help the public protect against identify theft.
The state also warned that anyone who receives a determination letter from the Labor Department but hasn’t applied for benefits should report the issue to the agency immediately.
How to protect yourself
If you receive a determination letter for unemployment but have not applied for jobless aid, report it immediately at on.ny.gov/uifraud.
Other steps to lower your risk of identity theft:
- Change passwords, logins and PINs for online accounts, especially banks
- Place a free fraud alert on accounts with the three credit bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax
- Get a free credit report from CreditReport.com
- If you’ve already been a victim of identity theft, take these steps:
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Report identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission at identitytheft.gov
- File a report with your local police department, if you wish
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Report a misused Social Security number. You can contact the Office of the Inspector General’s fraud hotline at 800-269-0271 or submit a report online at oig.ssa.gov
