South Central Reporter

State Sen. Jason Plummer (R-Edwardsville) wonders what he sees as Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s incompetence has cost the state.

“The unemployment fraud that hit our state because of the failures of Gov. Prizker’s thin-skinned and feckless administration,” Plummer posted on Facebook. “Did we lose billions or ‘merely’ hundreds of millions? The giant hole in our unemployment trust fund; this is going to hit labor unions and businesses hard. We're worse than any state. Why are we ignoring this and not using federal funds to plug the massive gap?”

To date, Illinois remains one of the states that have yet to officially reveal how much fraud there’s been in its unemployment system since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some early estimates put the price-tag as high as $430 million.

What’s definitely known is that soon after Pritzker enacted his months-long stay-at-home order in the spring of 2020, the state’s unemployment filings soared, forcing top state officials to borrow from the federal government to help pay for the required benefits. With at least $4.5 billion in debt  still owed, taxpayers are on the hook for tens of millions in interest.

What’s more, taxpayers’ remain in the dark about how much fraud there’s been.

“How we cannot track that, in today’s day and age where everything is tracked, all these cards that have gone out that are electronically activated and all that, we should be able to track that stuff and nail these people that are committing this fraud, and prosecute them," House Assistant Republican Leader Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield) told WMAY.

As recently as last summer, an Illinois Auditor General report examining the first few weeks of the pandemic indicated nearly $155 million in improper payments and in early 2021 Illinois Department of  Employment Security officials said they’d stopped 1.7 million fraudulent claims.

“Failure to accurately document PUA eligibility resulted in potentially ineligible claimants receiving benefits totaling $154,906,354,” the audit summary said.

Senate Republicans are now calling for a performance audit of the entire system.

“This report talks about claims made for dead people, claimants for future birthdays and individuals under the age of 13 and over the age of 90,” state Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris) told The Center Square. “What's even more shocking is the fact that this audit only shows findings through June [2020], which only accounts for ten percent of the program’s duration.”

Data also show IDES paid nearly $97 million for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance over the minimum and did not validate wages of all claimants, paid nearly $42 million in benefits to just under 5,000 claimants whose identities were not validated, paid more than $2.6 million to those whose birthdates were the same day or later than the date of the claims and issued out at least $343,000 to 35 claimants who were actually deceased.

Now two years into the pandemic, state Sen. Win Stoller (R-Germantown Hills) said the unemployment trust fund debt is estimated to be north of $5 billion. The unemployment trust fund is covered by taxes businesses pay out for each of their employees.