Overview
The Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) paid Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits, totaling $155,903, to 32 of the 103 incarcerated individuals in our sample. We noted the following:
- DUA paid PUA benefits to 28 of the 32 incarcerated individuals in our sample whose claims for benefits were labeled with incarceration denials for the weeks that they claimed benefits. The other 4 of these 32 incarcerated individuals in this sample did not have an incarcerated denial recorded; which is why, DUA paid the PUA benefits.
- We found that DUA did not record incarceration denials for 19 of the 103 incarcerated individuals in our sample for weeks that the individual was incarcerated while applying for PUA benefits. Of these 19 incarcerated individuals, 15 had their benefits denied for other reasons, and 4 received PUA benefits.
If DUA does not perform its due diligence to ensure that all benefit recipients are eligible, DUA may not be managing taxpayer funds effectively, which may result in less money being available for other services and programs and the premature exhaustion of money from the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund (UITF).
Authoritative Guidance
Authoritative guidance on this issue is set forth in the US Department of Labor’s (DOL’s) Employment and Training Administration’s (ETA’s) Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 23–20, which states, “The temporary programs enacted by the [Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security] Act operate in tandem with the fundamental eligibility requirements of the federal-state [unemployment insurance] program.”
These “fundamental eligibility requirements” include the following:
- Section 6 of Chapter 151A of the Massachusetts General Laws, which states, “The term ‘employment’ shall not include: . . . (v) Service performed in a custodial or penal institution by an inmate of said custodial or penal institution.”
- Section 24 of Chapter 151A of the General Laws, which states, “An individual, in order to be eligible for benefits under this chapter shall . . . (b) Be capable of, available, and actively seeking work in his usual occupation or any other occupation for which he is reasonably fitted.”
- Section 25 of Chapter 151A of the General Laws, which states,
No benefits shall be paid to an individual under this chapter for . . .
(e) The period of unemployment next ensuing and until the individual has had at least eight weeks of work and has earned an amount equivalent to or in excess of 8 times the individual’s weekly benefit amount after the individual has left work. . . (3) because of conviction of a felony or misdemeanor
Reasons for Issue
DUA officials told us that the manual process to crossmatch claims for PUA benefits against the list of incarcerated individuals was introduced in June 2020, and an automated process was introduced February 2021. Incarceration denials were noted in DUA’s PUA claim system. In some instances, PUA benefits were already paid out to individuals before DUA received data on these incarcerated individuals from the Massachusetts Parole Board and ran the crossmatch on incarcerated individuals.
Recommendation
DUA should review the design of its incarceration crossmatch process to detect all instances of incarcerated individuals applying for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits (or their identifications being used by others to do so) to ensure that those ineligible individuals do not receive UI benefits from the Commonwealth.
Auditee’s Response
On 6/02/2020, the Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) introduced a process to manually create availability issues on claims when DUA received notification from law enforcement agencies about a claimant’s incarceration. An availability issue would stop payment on a claim while DUA contacted the claimant via fact finding for the purposes of investigating the issue. Once the problem was discovered regarding incarcerated individuals filing for benefits, it took several months to determine which law enforcement agency would best be able to provide us with the most accurate and complete prisoner data.
Development of an incarcerated prisoner crossmatch process began in December of 2020 and went into production on 02/02/2021. This automated process involved crossmatching claimant records against data provided by the Parole Department. The automated crossmatch ran daily with the nightly batch process and a new parole file was received and processed every Monday from 02/02/2021 until 3/18/2022 when the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program sunset. Overpayments related to Incarceration denials currently make up .69% of the existing PUA overpayments. The automated process placed incarceration issues on claims that DUA received matches for via the crossmatch process. An Incarceration benefit issue prevented payment while DUA gave the claimant the opportunity to respond to DUA’s findings. When the PUA program sunset, claimants were no longer filing new PUA claims or filing weekly certifications for benefits so there was no need to continue the automated incarcerated prisoner crossmatch.
Auditor’s Reply
Based on its response, there was no preexisting system at DUA to ensure that incarcerated individuals did not receive benefits from any type of UI programs prior to the pandemic. While we applaud the efforts detailed in its response to set up this automated crossmatch, it did take DUA almost a year into the pandemic to develop and implement it. Benefit payments were already made during this time period, improperly, on behalf of individuals who were incarcerated. It also did not appear to catch all instances of an incarcerated individual claiming UI benefits, as our audit noted in four instances.
We reiterate our recommendation that DUA should review the design of its incarceration crossmatch process to detect all instances of incarcerated individuals applying for UI benefits (or their identifications being used by others to do so) to ensure that those ineligible individuals do not receive UI benefits from the Commonwealth. Although this audit was of the PUA program, DUA could also apply this recommendation to current UI programs it operates.
| Date published: | December 12, 2024 |
|---|