Official: D.C. unemployment office workers untrained

The District’s unemployment compensation office does not provide its employees with basic training, opening the door for fraud and causing long waits for payments, a D.C. inspector general’s report concluded. The District paid about $157 million in unemployment claims last year, Department of Labor statistics show. Nearly $10 million went out the door in overpayments. If the city is in line with the national average, half of that $10 million was based on fraudulent claims. However, the District is the only jurisdiction in the region, and possibly the country, that doesn’t have written policies on how unemployment claims examiners should disburse funds, D.C. Inspector General Charles Willoughby wrote in his report.