Illinois Department of Employment Security losses $1.2 million to fraud

Illinois Department of Employment and Security (IDES) has sent more than $1.2 million in unemployment benefits to fraudsters' accounts while the unemployed citizens for who the money was intended waited for months and sometimes even longer. 

The light was shed on this ongoing fraud when for the first time IDES was asked to turn over data to CBS 2, this is when the scope of the unemployment fraud was revealed which the agency has failed to stop since the beginning of the pandemic. Take Sharon Thomas for example, her bank account was hacked and on multiple instances here benefits were sent to the fraudsters' account. Sharon lost a total of $5472 in unemployment benefits. Thomas immediately informed IDES that the money was going into the wrong account but the state allegedly continued to deposit her benefit into that account. Thomas failed to get any sort of assistance from the department officials, a concern echoed by many of the victims of the fraud. "I have sent my social security card and driver's license at least six or seven times in various departments," Thomas said, "and when you phone there you can never get the same person twice-you are put into a call system that, whenever somebody's free, they call you next. And I just kept waiting and hoping."

Sharon Thomas and many others like her have filled out and sent multiple tracer forms which should ideally help them get their money back. After months and months of calls, she thought her issue was resolved when she finally got a call back in May. She was informed that a check was released but not to her. 

The agency has refused to publicly disclose the scope of pandemic-related unemployment fraud. 

Source: CBS News