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Good morning, California. It’s Friday, January 28.
Legitimate claimants ensnared
Two years into the pandemic, fraudsters continue to target California’s unemployment department.
The Employment Development Department, which last month froze about 345,000 disability insurance claims it flagged as suspicious, announced Thursday that it suspects that a whopping 98% of the 27,000 medical providers associated with those claims are fraudulent. So far, EDD said, only 485 providers have managed to verify their identity. The agency couldn’t say how much money it might have paid for those scam claims.
Although EDD has made progress on key reforms after paying at least $20 billion worth of fraudulent claims amid the pandemic, challenges remain. The agency noted Thursday that some legitimate providers and claimants were ensnared in the mass freeze and will have to go through additional verification procedures before payments can resume.
- One such claimant is Erick Robles, 35, a Hollister resident and contractor who went on disability this fall. His payments stopped in December, he told the San Francisco Chronicle, and he said that EDD told him “there’s nothing we…
