Kendall County Times

Illinois taxpayers deserve to know the dollar amount of unemployment payments that were made fraudulently, State Rep. Keith Wheeler (R-Oswego) said.

 "It is unacceptable that we still do not know how much money was lost to unemployment fraud since the start of the pandemic," the legislator said on Facebook. "Illinois taxpayers deserve accountability and transparency from the Illinois Department of Employment Security and the governor as we work to pay down this debt."

 More than two years after the start of the pandemic, Illinois taxpayers are still in the dark about the dollar amount of unemployment insurance payments that were fraudulent, according to The Center Square.  After Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered businesses to shut down in the spring of 2020, Illinois saw a huge spike in unemployment claims, leading to the accumulation of billions of dollars of unemployment debt. Although Illinois put some federal relief funds towards paying down the debt, there is still a remaining balance of around $1.8 billion accruing interest, the story said. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has reported that around 1 in 5 unemployment claims made during the pandemic nationwide may have been fraudulent.            

Illinois Department of Employment Security Director Kristin Richards told the Illinois Senate that more than 18% of unemployment insurance payments were paid "improperly," The Center Square reported in March. Richards did not provide an estimate of the dollar amount of fraud but stated that Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania have estimated that they sent out between $4 and $6 billion in fraudulent payments.         

The Illinois legislature last spring voted to use federal relief dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act to pay off a substantial amount of the state's debt to the unemployment insurance fund, according to NBC Chicago.

House Republicans supported using federal relief dollars to pay off the debt in its entirety, the story said.