While Pennsylvania continues to withhold Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments due to a recent rise in suspected fraudulent claims, the state is now contracting with a security firm to verify identities of those who make claims.
According to Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak, the state has egnaged the services of ID.me for the identity verifications.
“This new layer of identity verification will help ensure PUA payments are going to Pennsylvanians in need and not into the pockets of fraudsters,” said Secretary Oleksiak. “Our partnership with ID.me will allow us to make payments more quickly to legitimate PUA claimants while helping L&I fulfill its fiduciary responsibility to the public to prevent fraud.”
In September, Labor & Industry said the number of claims went from about 5,000 per day to more than 20,000 a day late last week with many of the claims coming from out of state.
This prompted payments of benefits to be paused while the state tried to verify legitimate claims and identify any fraudluent claims.
The halt in payments for new claims continues. Anyone not already receiving payments will need to go through the process of verification with ID.me.