Anti-fraud steps slow aid
State fraud-prevention efforts are delaying unemployment benefits for thousands of Arizonans who are struggling to find work during the pandemic.
“All pending cases require research and validation. In many cases, efforts to stop payments and recover funds prevent any losses in benefits.”
Brett Bezio
Spokesman, Arizona Department of Economic Security
Thousands of Arizonans who are struggling to find work during the pandemic are seeing delays in their unemployment benefits because of amplified fraud-prevention efforts by the state.
The amount of money Arizona paid out in unemployment benefits decreased for a second consecutive week even though the number of people seeking benefits has gone up, according to data from the Department of Economic Security.
And many Arizonans are growing more unhappy that they are not receiving the benefits that are due to them.
Another 29,000 Arizonans filed firsttime claims for unemployment insurance last week, and 184,000 filed initial claims for a benefit called “pandemic unemployment assistance” that is available for contract workers, the selfemployed and people with insufficient work histories to collect regular unemployment.
There likely is duplication in those figures from people who apply to both programs or who apply multiple times out of frustration.
The total number of Arizonans who have been paid one of those benefits since the week of March 14 is now approximately 880,000, according to DES. About 125,000 applications combined from both programs have yet to be reviewed.
DES paid out $41 million less in total benefits last week than the prior week, even though more people are applying for benefits. The weekly total was $722 million. The figure is also lower than the $920 million paid out two weeks ago.
Both regular unemployment and PUA payments declined last week.
Before the pandemic, DES paid about $3 million a week in benefits and got about 4,000 new applications weekly.
DES officials say many applicants’ benefits are being delayed because of increased fraud-prevention efforts to verify the people getting benefits are legitimate claimants.
“Fraudsters worldwide are using phishing scams, personally identifiable information obtained from previous corporate data breaches and other malicious tactics to collect information from individuals across the country, to file for UI benefits in multiple states,” DES spokesman Brett Bezio said Wednesday.
Further delays are caused by the more than 5,400 unemployment claims and “tens of thousands” of PUA
claims that have been flagged as potential fraud, requiring additional attention from DES, Bezio said.
He said DES has “made significant progress” identifying fraud.
“All pending cases require research and validation,” he said. “In many cases, efforts to stop payments and recover funds prevent any losses in benefits.”
The experience of one Phoenix family shows how the weekly benefits can get hung up because of fraud-detection efforts at DES, and result in additional applications getting filed as people try desperately to get financial assistance.
The applications last week likely were exacerbated by the second closure of bars and some other businesses the governor ordered on June 29.
Alicia Prettyman, 50, of Phoenix, was working as a bartender and was laid off in February when the hotel bar she worked at shuttered because of the pandemic.
Her husband worked in manufacturing but lost his job in March.
They both had to wait until mid-May without any income and apply for PUA, which they received, including retroactive payments back to when they first lost their jobs.
“Which was great, but we were so far behind on all our bills that it went,” she said of that money. “We owed March, April and part of May on back rent, car payments, insurance.”
Prettyman said she’s unlikely to find work now.
“I’m a bartender, and Gov. Ducey last week closed the bars again, so now it’s even less likely I’ll be finding a job,” she said.
Then, two weeks ago, she and her husband both had issues filing the weekly PUA claim, and they were not paid benefits, even though they both have several weeks of eligibility left, she said.
Prettyman was able to get someone at DES on the phone, and the agent told her there was no issue he could see with the account, and the problem was likely a two-factor authentication system the agency recently began using to verify the proper people were filing claims and to reduce fraud.
But Prettyman said when she went back online to file a claim, the website instructed her that she needed to file a new initial claim, which she did.
“Now I can’t find my old claims, can’t find my weekly claims from weeks ago that I never got paid from, I have a whole new account,” she said.
Her husband’s account wasn’t paid for three weeks in a row, either, she said, until DES sorted out their issues this week.
She said she understands trying to root out fraud but that DES could do better to help people who need their money.
“They shouldn’t penalize people who are just trying to get by,” she said.
Many other people applying for benefits simply haven’t been paid at all.
James Graham, 61, owned a small transportation company out of Maricopa when the pandemic hit, putting him, his son and about a dozen contract drivers in other states out of work.
Graham applied for PUA but has not seen any payments, even though his online account with the state shows he should qualify for the money.
His account indicates there is a problem with his Social Security number. He’s tried calling DES at all hours to fix the problem, with no luck. He’s gone about 14 weeks without income now, he said.
“I’m living off my savings,” he said Tuesday. “It just makes me wonder, are they ever going to pay this out?”
Graham’s 12 employees in different states all applied for PUA as well. Those in Ohio have been receiving PUA, he said, but those in Michigan were denied when they applied for benefits. The workers in West Virginia were getting weekly benefits, but then the payments stopped about two weeks ago, he said.
He said it’s frustrating that the state is holding up legitimate payments while investigating fraud.
“They are punishing thousands of people in the state because they sent a few bad checks (to people committing fraud),” he said.
It is a similar story for Yvonne Rich and her daughter in Tempe.
Rich is concerned she will be evicted from her apartment later this month when the governor’s moratorium on evictions expires.
Rich had her hours cut at her job helping people with disabilities, and her daughter who lives with her lost her office job when the pandemic began.
Her daughter, 31-year-old Reality Rich, has not been able to collect any unemployment, she said.
“They kept saying I was going to get it, but I haven’t received anything,” Reality said. “Every week it’s something different. I’ve sent them papers and papers and papers.”
Yvonne Rich said it is frustrating to have so much trouble but also to learn that some people who did not apply for benefits are getting benefit cards in the mail because of fraud.
“This is so unfair,” she said. “We are workers. We actually work a job and pay our bills and pay our taxes.”