8/19/2019 Auditor General Hits Snyder on Screw-Ups in UI
“Robofraud” & Veterans Home
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Auditor General Hits Snyder on Screw-Ups in UI “Robofraud” &
Veterans Home
It’s not just Flint water that is getting screwed up by the
Snyder Administration.
Two recent Auditor General reports have documented widespread
problems in how decisions of the Governorand his appointees have
hurt laid off worers and veterans residing in the state’s Grand
!apids "ome for#eterans.
Robofraud UIA !omputers Run Amo"
A February performance audit report of the $nemployment
Insurance Agency %$ IA& showed a consistent pattern of the
agency falsely accusing laid off worers of fraud in applying for $I
benefits. The $IA used acomputer to mae decisions about fraud
accusations without any human oversight. The computer sentmessages
to obscure electronic message sites' often ( months or longer after
an individual had returned to wor.)hen the individuals didn’t
respond' the computer found them guilty of fraud and assessed *++,
penalties plus-, interest.
/ost people found guilty of fraud only found out about the
accusationwhen their ta0 refunds were sei1ed or their wages
garnished. )hen thesefalse accusations were challenged in the $I
appeal system' the AuditorGeneral found that t#e $uilty %erdicts
for misrepresentation wereup#eld on appeal only ' of t#e time(
)#at means t#at innocent *obless wor"ers were falsely con%icted
of
fraud +,' of t#e time by a computer(
This gross miscarriage of justice was the subject of a recent
public hearingon "2 *34' legislation sponsored by !epresentative
!oger #ictory' !5Georgetown Township. #ictory’s bill would re6uire
the $IA to sendsecond notifications of $I benefit redeterminations
to laid off worers bycertified mail. The bill also re6uires human
review of computer7!obofraud8 accusations to mae sure that the
individual willfully andintentionally violated the law before
pursuing an accusation or imposing
fines.
Several victims of 7!obofraud8 testified at a February -4th
hearing on "2 *34 before the "ouse 9versightand :thics
committee.
;avid #ela told the committee how he received $I benefits when
he was laid off from wor in ++3. )hen hisemployer called him bac to
wor in +-+' he thought he was through with the $IA. "e moved in +--
butdidn’t notify the $IA since his claim was long since settled. In
+- the $IA computer decided his claim might be fraudulent and
sent a notice to ;avid at the agency’s /ichigan )eb Account /anager
%/ I)A /& page' aninternal notification system that people can
use to chec on their $I claim while drawing benefits. ;avid hadno
reason to monitor the /I)A/ account' since he had been bac to wor
for more than a year.
Legislation affecting AFL-CIO unions and their families
Dateline: Lansing
