Pursuit's Take
The Unemployment Insurance (UI) program, designed to provide benefits to individuals out of work, has one of the highest improper payment rates of all government programs. One of the leading causes of improper UI payments is that states cannot determine if a claimant is eligible for benefits based on adequate base year wages or allowable reasons for separation.
If ETA cannot ensure adequate controls exist so that states receive appropriate wage and separation information for the Unemployment Program for Federal Employees (UCFE) and Unemployment Program for Ex-servicemembers (UCX) programs, there will be a significant risk for improper payments in these programs.
As a result, states were forced to determine a claimant’s eligibility and make benefit payments based on nothing more than a signed statement provided by the claimant.