South Carolina chosen to help lead nation’s initiative to prevent unemployment fraud

DECEMBER 19, 2012 – South Carolina has been selected to help lead thenation’s efforts to improve Unemployment Insurance (UI) integritycommonly known as fraud and overpayment prevention.

The PalmettoState is one of five states chosen to serve on the steering committeefor the newly formed UI Integrity Center of Excellence, which is apartnership between the U.S. Department of Labor and the NationalAssociation of State Workforce Agencies.

Led by the New YorkDepartment of Labor, the Center of Excellence was created to identifypromising techniques for deterring unemployment fraud, serve as aclearinghouse for information about fraud schemes and develop trainingand technology to help states share solutions and strategies.

“It is truly an honor to have been asked to serve on this national teamalong with Colorado, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington,” said Abraham J.Turner, executive director of the SC Department of Employment andWorkforce (DEW). “We look forward to working with our sister workforceagencies throughout the nation to tackle the issue of unemployment fraud head on and improve overall program integrity.”

DEW also wasrecently awarded $1.8 million from the Department of Labor to focus onfraud prevention and integrity promotion activities.

The grantprovides funding for a series of projects designed to update technologyand business processes therefore reducing the potential for error. These projects include:

• Detecting workers who are misclassified as independent contractors or employees;
• Automating eligibility and work search review processes;
• Modernizing the appeals system through an updated case management system;
• Creating an agency-wide team to improve fraud identification and prevention as well as collecting overpayments;
• Automating tax processes to reduce paper and manual work; and,
• Investing in software to detect employer fraud.