State and federal investigators are scrambling to stop scammers from stealing millions of dollars in unemployment benefits, imposing a raft of new restrictions that have inadvertently deprived some out-of-work Americans from receiving much-needed payments for weeks, the Washington Post reported. The broad, national crackdowns began in May, following reports that organized criminals had set their sights on local labor agencies at a moment when they’re trying to manage the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. States including Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Washington each have reviewed scores of past applications, while halting some current unemployment payments, hoping to thwart fraudsters before they could sap any more funds. The aggressive actions have helped some of these states identify tens of thousands of suspicious claims filed by alleged criminals, many of whom had relied on personal information stolen from unsuspecting workers to obtain benefits they were not eligible to receive. But these states’ aggressive interventions have also swept up many people who have nothing to do with the scams. Some out-of-work Americans who had properly filed for help — and weathered long delays to obtain checks in the first place — have been baffled and frustrated to find their benefits are now unexpectedly paused. “They said benefits would only be stopped for a few days, but it’s been weeks,” lamented John Tirpak, executive director of the Unemployment Law Project.
