I tried to report unemployment fraud using the website and they ignored it. State of PA. The claimant ended his seasonal job at UPS in the beginning of January. They seem to want to pay everyone who applies no matter what the circumstances? Has anyone seen this? Any suggestions? His not working was driving me crazy. Now he’s working and collecting at the same time.
State unemployment agencies are struggling to do their first job right now. Other tasks are pretty much not going to happen at all.
How do you know that they ignored it?
I’m confused. First you say he ended a seasonal job at the end of January - which would normally make someone eligible for benefits. Then you say he’s working and collecting at the same time, and that unemployment ignored your fraud report -although you don’t give any specifics regarding his working, or how long ago you reported the fraud. But just for your information, in at least some states you can collect unemployment even if you are still working if your hours have been cut/days have been cut below a certain threshold.
Throughout my career other people have told me they have had people illegally working, cheating on their taxes and so forth.
I’ve never heard of one time anyone getting followed up on that
Just google around and you will see the chance of a government agency following up is not very great. When they find fraud, it’s because something in their own system trips up the person. (Usually the fraudster gets greedy)
Good point Doreen about continuing to work and collect. You are not eligible after a seasonal job ended. Until now. Is that true? Links please?
Unless he’s being paid under the table, isn’t this sort of thing easy to catch? They just need to cross-reference the income tax records (showing he reported wage income) and the unemployment claims.
Door dash and other delivery. Reported almost 2 months ago.
Seasonal jobs depend on the specifics - in my state you’ll be eligible for unemployment after working a seasonal job unless that seasonal job is specifically excluded.
This is the only info I could find about exclusions
Most seasonal jobs won’t cause you to be ineligible in NYS just because the job is seasonal, and from what I recall the exceptions all involve that “reasonable assurance of a job” next season" so that the lifeguards at the city pool who return summer after summer may not be eligible , while the ride operators at an amusement park who have no expectation that they will be rehired next year are eligible.
In this case it’s a 3 week “season”. He will not be rehired. Every state is different. But the biggest difference is the Pandemic. Our governor was just quoted everyone who applies will get their unemployment checks. Except in NJ. Nobody I know is getting paid.
Apparently PA changed their rules in 2016 so that people are eligible for unemployment as long as they earned no more than 63% of their wages in a single quarter. But a person would still need to have worked 18 weeks in their base year, so a 3 week seasonal job by itself wouldn’t be enough work to qualify.
Although I’m kind of wondering what sort of seasonal job has a three week season - usually a job that is only expected to last three weeks is considered “temporary” not “seasonal”. That’s even less likely to disqualify someone than seasonal work since some people work nearly year-round in different temp jobs while some people work seasonal jobs and earn their entire year’s income in a single quarter or two.
Looks like he will magically find a job before the $450 return to work bonus deadline. The only obstacle is that he will be competing with millions of qualified experienced workers with the same goal.
Just WAGing here but, the agency only has so many investigators. They need to spend their time on major fraud to earn their salaries. Someone potentially scamming then out of several hundred dollars isn’t an effective use of resources, in particular now when they are overwhelmed with applicants.
Since the state gets quarterly reports, it is very hard to do UC fraud.
They can see where you worked, and where you are working recently.
So, they saw where he was working, and determined that that made him eligible. Thereby, that’s not fraud.
Now, yes, when the next quarterly report comes in, they can see he is now working.
But of course since there is a delay, you can be working and still getting checks for a even up to a month.
And in many states, if you go from FT to PT, you can still get a UC check, even tho they are much smaller. They subtract a portion of what you are currently earning from your benefits. “Door dash and other delivery” would be PT sorts of work.
So, I dont think there is any fraud here at all.