Ohio boosts efforts to target unemployment fraud
Published 10:47 am Tuesday, September 3, 2013
HAMILTON (AP) — Ohio has added investigators and increased efforts to identify unemployment fraud despite a steady decrease in the amount of available jobless benefits and the number of Ohioans receiving such help.
A spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services tells The JournalNews in Hamilton that the state has started using databases and data mining to check for fraud.
It also has added about 13 federally funded fraud investigators in recent years for a current total of 67.
Such employees handle not only investigation but also fraud prevention and collection duties. In the past year, the department referred nearly 200 cases to prosecutors.
Department spokesman Benjamin Johnson says Ohio also has joined a consortium of states and agencies aimed at identifying fraud and making payments more accurate.