Kansas may have paid $600 million worth of bogus claims for unemployment benefits last year, a legislative audit said Wednesday, more than double an estimate from the state Department of Labor. The report from the Republican-controlled Legislature’s nonpartisan auditing division suggested that nearly 1 in 4 unemployment claims paid last year could have been fraudulent amid a surge in filings during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the Department of Labor’s own data. The department on Tuesday estimated last year’s fraudulent claims as worth $290 million.
Source: Emporia Gazette
