Texas unemployment claims double amid surge of benefits fraud

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Unemployment is on the rise in the Lone Star State — at least on paper.

The Texas Workforce Commission confirms it’s identified a “large volume of fraudulent claim attempts” since Labor Day.

It got our attention after three employees here at ABC13 discovered someone illegally applied for benefits using their personal information in the last few weeks, and we wanted to know if it was a widespread problem

“Human resources walked in, she had a piece of paper and she said, ‘Just so you know, you’re not laid off despite what this says,'” Charlie Butera, ABC13’s manager of news media, said.

The station had been sent a notice from the Texas Workforce Commission that Butera had applied for unemployment benefits, even though he hadn’t. The reason given on the notice was that Butera had been laid off, even though he’s been continuously employed since joining ABC13.

“They had my Social, they had my name, and the claim had been filed under me,” Butera said.

Data from the Texas Workforce Commission shows around 16,000 unemployment claims are filed in a typical week.

But the number almost doubled for the week ending Sept. 6, when 31,876 claims were filed.

Employers are notified any time an employee files for unemployment benefits and have 14 days to respond.

If the employer fails to respond, they lose their right to challenge the unemployment claim and their unemployment insurance taxes could rise.

“Some employers, just as a matter of practice, they don’t challenge unemployment claims, but they now might want to at least verify that when they receive a notice of a TWC unemployment claim that it truly is a former employee,” employment attorney Michael Lombardino said.

ABC13’s human resources department immediately reported the fraudulent claim to the Texas Workforce Commission this week and the benefits were never paid out.

The Texas Workforce Commission sent ABC13 the following statement:

“Since Labor Day, we’ve observed an uptick in identity (ID) fraud claim attempts aimed at exploiting the unemployment insurance system.

It is crucial to understand that while we have identified a large volume of fraudulent claim attempts, our systems are working to detect and shut down these suspicious claims.

We are actively working to prevent these fraudulent claims from impacting legitimate claimants.

It’s critically important for both employees and employers to be vigilant and report any suspected fraud to the TWC immediately.

If an individual receives correspondence from TWC for a claim they did not file, or an employer receives notice of claim their employee did not file, the ID fraudulent claim should be reported through the secure online portal by going to https://www.twc.texas.gov/services/report-fraud. By working together, we can effectively identify and shut down these fraudulent activities.“

For news updates, follow Luke Jones on Facebook, X and Instagram.