Overview
DUA made PUA benefit payments totaling $315,340 on behalf of 22 of the 80 sampled individuals who, during our audit period, were reported by the Office of the Comptroller of the Commonwealth (CTR) as Commonwealth employees at the time they received unemployment 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 UITF.
Authoritative Guidance
Authoritative guidance on this issue is set forth in DOL’s ETA’s Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 23–20, which states, “The temporary programs enacted by the CARES Act operate in tandem with the fundamental eligibility requirements of the federal-state UI program.”
These “fundamental eligibility requirements” include the following:
- Section 25 of Chapter 151A of the General Laws, which states, “No benefits shall be paid to an individual under this chapter for . . . (j) Any week in which the individual fraudulently collects benefits while not in total or partial unemployment.”
- DOL’s ETA’s Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 23–20 referenced Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 16–20, which states,
Individuals who meet the following criteria are not eligible for PUA:
- Individuals who have the ability to telework with pay. When addressing issues about the availability of paid telework, the state must determine whether the claimant has been offered the option of continuing to work for pay by teleworking. If so, and claimants were offered to continue to work the same number of hours, claimants are not eligible for PUA.
Reasons for Issue
DUA did not implement a process to crossmatch the names of Commonwealth employees with CTR data until May 21, 2020. DUA paid PUA benefits that were submitted before it implemented the crossmatch process.
Additionally, DUA used the same list of Commonwealth employees provided to them by CTR for the entire duration of the program. DUA did not update this list of Commonwealth employees to ensure that it had been crossmatched against current lists of Commonwealth employees.
Recommendations
- DUA should implement an effective crossmatch process to detect all instances of Commonwealth employees applying for UI benefits.
- DUA should coordinate with CTR to gain access to an up-to-date list of Commonwealth employees.
Auditee’s Response
The PUA system was introduced in Massachusetts on 4/21/2020. DUA received a list of state employees by the Comptroller’s Office and loaded that data into the PUA system on 6/21/2020.
Thereafter, Identity Verification issues were added to claims when there was a crossmatch with the state employees list, triggering further review of initial claims to confirm valid identity. Any instance of a crossmatch with then-current Commonwealth of Massachusetts employees was flagged and benefits were not issued.
Auditor’s Reply
While DUA did get the state employee crossmatch implemented two months into the PUA program, improper payments were already paid on behalf of current state employees, as noted in the above finding. We reiterate our recommendation that an effective crossmatch should be implemented to detect instances when the identity of a current state employee is being used to claim benefits for any UI program. We also reiterate our recommendation that DUA should use an up-to-date list of Commonwealth employees to do this crossmatch to capture changes in employment over time.
| Date published: | December 12, 2024 |
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