800 People May Owe State $3.5 Million In Wrongfully Collected Benefits

Connecticut is targeting unemployment benefit fraud. The state says it’s identified 800 people who have improperly collected benefits, and may owe the state as much as $2.5 million. WNPR’s Harriet Jones reports.

Officials from the state Department of Labor have sent letters to the 800 people, giving them 60 days to repay the cash they took in benefits, or prove that they do not owe the money. The state has always been able to garnish wages or stop state tax refunds for benefit cheats, but now it has an additional back-up plan. It has an arrangement with the IRS to collect money from federal tax refunds, if the targeted individuals don’t pay up.

The 800 people owe an average of more than $3,000 each. The state’s unemployment trust fund has reached the point of insolvency during the recession, and is taking loans from the federal government in order to pay benefits. Officials say this latest push to catch benefit cheats is just the beginning. These letters cover checks issued between 2008 and 2010. They say they’re continuing to search the years before that to see if they can recover even more cash.

For WNPR, I'm Harriet Jones.