BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE ADMINISTRATION OF PANDEMIC RELATED UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS PROGRAMS

The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) is charged with conducting oversight of pandemic-related spending to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement. In May 2021, we engaged MITRE, a not-for-profit federally funded research and development center, to conduct an independent study of lessons learned from the administration of pandemic-related emergency funding for unemployment insurance (UI) benefit programs in a sample of states. The objective of this study was to increase understanding of how states implemented pandemic UI benefit programs and how their different implementation approaches may have reduced the fraud risk, including identity theft-related fraud. MITRE, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), contacted all 54 state and territory workforce agencies (SWAs) and 12 responded. This report summarizes the responses of those 12 SWAs except where otherwise indicated.