Skip to main content

Read our report on six communities’ experiences with pandemic funding and programs, which provides valuable lessons learned to improve federal emergency response programs.

X
Skip to list of reports Filters

Date Range

Report Category

State (State and Local Reports)

Reports

Search reports, investigative results, and agency plansShowing 1 - 1 of 1 results
Mississippi Office of the State Auditor

Mississippi’s Historic Unemployment Fraud

The Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) administers Mississippi’s unemployment benefits programs. With the influx of jobless claims and COVID relief aid as a result of the pandemic, total unemployment benefit claims increased from $59.6 million in FY 2019 to $2.1 billion in FY 2020. With this infusion of money came massive fraud and misspending. For example, from FY 2020 to FY 2021, known overpayments increased from $118 million to $474 million. The massive loss of money from Mississippi’s unemployment fund is partially the result of MDES bypassing or altering their own...