By Crystal Vandegrift
Staff Writer
The COVID-19 pandemic affected many individuals and their ability to provide for their families since striking in March 2020. For some, unemployment benefits helped many survive when so many operations had to close, while for others it was a way to cash in by filing claims under false pretenses.
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The Virginia Employment Commission has started investigating those claims, a news release said, in hopes of recovering this money paid on thousands of confirmed fraudulent claims of employment benefits.
VEC officials said that since March 2020, the state had distributed $1.6 billion in known and potentially fraudulent claims.
Since January, VEC officials said they have successfully recovered roughly $40 million in wrongful payments with more than $60 million remaining to be addressed.
VEC Commissioner Carrie Roth said this is in connection to 17,401 cases of confirmed fraud.
Roth said the VEC is in the process of reviewing 99,376 unpaid and 180,261 paid potentially fraudulent claims.
According to a VEC report, from March 21, 2020, to March 2021, more than 1.5 million claims were filed, compared to the 477,600 averages filed during the previous three economic recessions since 1990.
For eligible individuals who did not commit fraud but were overpaid through no fault of their own, the VEC has approved 23,310 overpayment waivers and waived more than $80 million in payments.
The employment commission said fraudulent claims have not only...
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