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UIA director tries to allay concerns during committee testimony

Unemployment Insurance Agency
/
michigan.gov

A state House Committee held a hearing today on an audit into the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency. It looked at the agency's ability to catch fraud during the COVID-19 pandemic

The audit found the state undercalculated unemployment fraud penalties and wrongly paid benefits to people who were incarcerated or dead.

Republican Representative Tom Kunse says he hasn’t seen enough from the agency to believe it’ll do better in the future.

"We talk about, ‘Oh, the ship is turning.’ We need dramatic changes right now.”

But Democratic Representative Erin Byrnes says she’s confident in the current UIA director who took over about halfway into the audit:

“I think it’s about learning from the lessons of the past and using that to inform what they’re doing now and into the future, and I feel that they’re doing a good job at that.”

UIA leadership says significant changes it’s made include creating a new computer system and adding staff.

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