The number of claims for supplemental unemployment assistance saw a significant drop in the first week after the Arizona Department of Economic Security retooled its application process to prevent fraud.
The latest update of new unemployment claims by DES shows 52,293 new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims and 442,309 continued claims for the week ending August 1. That’s a massive drop from the week ending July 25, when they reported 266,674 initial claims and 2,578,141 continued claims.
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New PUA claims see massive drop after AZDES makes changes to deter fraudulent claims.
From Arizona Department of Economic SecurityDES announced in late June they would better vet applications and only allow for new applicants to apply for one week’s worth of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Before July 25, the department allowed individuals to file claims for several weeks in the past at one time.
Instead, new claimants will need to work with DES to qualify for retroactive payments.
The change came as a nationwide ring of fraudsters began abusing state portals, falsely filing weeks of retroactive claims using private information from phishing scams or data breaches.
“This change went into effect July 25 and aligns the PUA system with the regular unemployment insurance system,” said Deputy Press Secretary Brett Bezio, “As a result, this had a significant impact on the number of weekly claims filed. Initial claims were also impacted as criminals were deterred from filing claims.”
The change does not affect PUA claimants who are already in the system, he said.
Since the program has been available for several months, Bezio said the need among eligible claimants to file previous weeks has also significantly dropped.
To date, Arizona has paid out a total of $8.5 billion in unemployment insurance benefits.
