The Unemployment Insurance Integrity and Accessibility Act: What’s in the Bill

Below is a breakdown of the key provisions in the bill.

• Recovering Fraud and Overpayments. As states implemented new federal emergency benefit programs during the pandemic to meet increased demand, opportunities arose for criminal actors to defraud the UI system. Additionally, numerous errors led to overpayments. The following provisions seek to assist states in recovering pandemic and non-pandemic federal funds and provide protection to genuine claimants who may face hardships returning pandemic overpayments:
  • Extends the statute of limitations for pandemic UI fraud. Under current law, the federal statute of limitations for pandemic unemployment fraud is five years. Extending the statute of limitations gives state agencies more time to find and prosecute criminal actors, many of whom are abroad.
  • Permits states to waive certain pandemic non-fraud overpayments. This provision protects certain individuals from the undue burden of repaying non-fraud overpayments they received, ensuring that repayments are not required when “collection would be contrary to equity and good conscience.”
  • Allows states to retain a portion of recovered overpayments. Currently, states are unable to keep any of the federal dollars they recover. The new recovery provision changes this by allowing states to use a portion of recovered pandemic and non-pandemic overpayments to enhance program administration, including modernizing the state’s UI technology infrastructure.
• Fraud Prevention and Detection. Learning from shortcomings exposed by the pandemic—which resulted in anywhere from $100 billion to $280 billion in stolen funds—states have expanded their data-sharing measures and incorporated new digital tools to combat fraud. The following provisions aim to standardize data-sharing techniques and the use of new technologies across states, while also increasing the U.S. Department of Labor’s role in providing essential guidance to states in this area:
  • Requires improved data sharing. Criminal actors often exploit personal information to create fake identities and fraudulently claim benefits. This bill requires state UI programs to cross-match claimant data with key sources such as the National Directory of New Hires, the Integrity Data Hub, and the Social Security Administration’s Prisoner Update Processing System. Utilizing these data sources, states can more effectively detect fraud by verifying employment status, identifying suspicious schemes, and preventing benefits from being paid to incarcerated individuals.
  • Requires states to offer employers a seamless way to verify claims. Employers are essential in the UI claims process for verifying claimant information. To modernize the UI system, this bill requires states to implement tools like the UI State Information Data Exchange System, which provides an efficient platform for employers to respond to state requests, including wage verifications.
  • Tasks the Secretary of Labor with overseeing the effective implementation and use of these methods. BPC discovered that some states are more effective than others at employing data-sharing tools. While states see the value in these tools, they face challenges in implementing them. This bill tasks the Secretary with overseeing implementation, helping states overcome obstacles, and maximizing fraud prevention efforts.
• Improving Program Accessibility. During the pandemic, a surge in workers seeking UI benefits exposed long-standing accessibility issues. States addressed some of these problems with ARPA equity grants, but there is more to be done. This bill seeks to standardize program access and technology requirements and mandates better collaboration between states and employers to provide eligible claimants with information sooner:
  • Enhances UI accessibility. ARPA equity grants expanded language services, simplified materials, improved websites, and provided multiple pathways to access UI benefits. This bill aims to build on these efforts by requiring the provision of in-person claim filing options and creating new standards for state online filing systems to enhance clarity and accessibility. It ensures states maintain these standards and tasks the Secretary of Labor with providing necessary guidance.
  • Requires state-employer collaboration to facilitate access to UI benefits for displaced workers. Navigating the UI claims process can be challenging for claimants. This bill requires states to work with employers to provide written information on accessing UI benefits upon separation and to establish systems for employers to report separations where employees may be eligible for benefits, streamlining the process.
• Evaluating ARPA Funded Investments. ARPA allocated $2 billion to the UI system, later reduced to $1 billion by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023. This bill requires GAO to assess how these funds were used by the Secretary of Labor, states, and territories to improve UI administration and evaluate the impact of these investments. Additionally, GAO would be directed to investigate any misuse of funds and any remaining unobligated funds.