News » Top Stories

Illinois working to deter fraud with new system

By WEEK Creative Services
July 10, 2012 Updated Jul 10, 2012 at 10:33 PM CDT

ILLINOIS -- The Illinois Department of Employment Security is taking additional steps to prevent fraud and abuse within the system.

IDES is now checking its unemployment rolls against lists of incarcerated inmates across the state.

Being available to work is a pre-requisite to receiving unemployment benefits, so a match between the two databases is likely a fraudulent claim.

A spokesman says those matches will need to be investigated because it may not be the inmate who is committing the fraud.

And being incarcerated does not automatically prohibit someone from receiving benefits.

Initial results found 420 inmates of 70,000 surveyed were also on the state's unemployment insurance rolls.

To report fraud suspicions, visit ides.illinois.gov.

To submit a comment on this article, your email address is required. We respect your privacy and your email will not be visible to others nor will it be added to any email lists.