COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Department of Job and Family services says while it’s Panemic Unemployment Assistance fraud investigation is still underway, the department knows more about the impact of potential fraud.
Data requested from ODJFS reports that 61,115 accounts have been verified and unlocked out of an estimated 276,000 accounts frozen due to the investigation.
208,000 information requests remain unreturned, and the department says due to the volume of requests, it is likely those are fraudulent accounts.
That leaves a good amount where we have received no response at all, because we have learned they are deceased claimants or fraudulent, so we are pleased with that fact,” said ODJFS Director Kimberly Hall. “But we are certainly putting our best energy to work through releasing the holds for the claimants that are legitimate.”
The state reports around 16,000 accounts returned verification requests, which ODJFS says it is still working through manually.
Of those unreturned requests, around 53 percent were never paid benefits, according to ODJFS, but the department could not report how much in benefits was paid out to the other 47 percent of potentially fraudulent accounts.
“We are still in the process with law enforcement on that aspect,” said Hall. “With the Delta that I shared, it could be significant.”
Other states have reported millions in losses, but Hall says the efforts of the department may have reduced the impact in Ohio.
Hall says ODJFS is working with federal agencies on the investigation, but there is no word on charges or whether the fraud came from inside or outside of Ohio.
