For the fourth straight week amid the ongoing health and economic havoc caused by COVID-19, overall initial unemployment claims in Washington fell.
The decline is due in large part to the state successfully recovering about $333 million in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims and that more Washington residents are returning to work as industries continue to reopen.
Employment Security Department Commissioner Suzi LeVine and ESD officials believe the total amount paid to a Nigerian fraud ring was between $550 million and $650 million, though they are still trying to determine the exact amount. LeVine believes a significant amount of the money can still be recovered.
In an effort to help expedite the process, Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy said last week that her office will investigate the massive unemployment-fraud scheme and how ESD was unknowingly drawn into it. The investigation will also examine what has caused ESD to delay paying claims to thousands of out-of-work Washington residents.
LeVine announced in a press conference a day later that National Guard troops will help ESD employees verify the identities of individuals whose unemployment benefits are delayed and under review for potential fraud.
She acknowledged the sophistication of fraud criminals, who are able to alter their methods as states increase security measures.
“I am confident we are doing everything we can in order to stop fraud,” she said. “They will not be stopped. Criminals will continue to do what they are doing, and they will continue to try to run faster than we are, be smarter than we are, and they will continue to try to get into our system and steal from us. It is a matter of how are you outrunning them — and the race continues.”
In the meantime, ESD continues to try and slosh through the backlog of claims to root out fraud and get out payments to individuals with legitimate claims.
On May 15 when ESD disclosed the fraud, it flagged 190,000 claims for further review. To date, the agency has resolved more than half of those. But the claims of another 78,000 people are still being held up so investigators can try and resolve identity and other potential problems.
Of that total, 42,000 individuals had already been receiving payments that were halted because of the fraud investigation. ESD hopes to restart their payments by June 19 if ESD deems them legitimate.
Here are the latest Washington state unemployment figures: For the week of May 31-June 6, Washington residents filed 29,713 initial regular unemployment claims — down 4.8 percent from the week prior — and 729.053 total claims for all employment benefit categories — down 45,906 or about 6 percent from the previous week. ESD paid more than $545.3 million to accommodate 420,772 individual claims.
Since March 7 — considered the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis — ESD has paid more than $5.4 billion in benefits to 844,077 individuals and received 2,082,098 initial claims. The highest number of initial claims occurred the week of March 28, when 181,975 individuals filed for unemployment insurance.
The May 31-June 6 decrease follows three weeks of drops in initial claims from a high of 138,733 May 10-16, 48,445 May 17-23, and 31,224 May 24-30.
“We continue to see a decline in initial claims, which is expected as the economy starts to reopen,” LeVine said in a prepared statement. ”Our priorities from day one of this crisis have been to get benefits out to Washingtonians who need them quickly and expand eligibility so those impacted can get the help they need, and we are continuing to ramp up our staffing to work through the large numbers of applicants and adjudications.
“We know every day matters for people awaiting their benefits. We are committed to processing those claims as quickly as possible.”
For the first time in almost a month, Clark County residents filed for more initial unemployment claims than they had in the previous weeks.
For the week of May 31-June 6, Clark County residents filed 1,425 initial claims, up 40 from May 24-30, when residents filed 1,385 initial claims — but down from 2,182 the week before and 5,945 the week before that. Since March 7, 61,376 Clark County residents filed initial claims for unemployment insurance.
By industry, 159 claims came from employees in food services/drinking facilities, 93 in ambulatory health care services, and 80 in specialty trade contractors — with other industries accounting for fewer claims.
