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MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Tammy Cavender (573)
751-7500
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 17, 2006
Missouri Department of Labor Implements New Method to Detect Potential
Unemployment Overpayments
Jefferson City – The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations’ Division of Employment Security began using a new programming method this month to help detect potentially overpaid unemployment insurance benefits. The programming was made possible by a $128,000 grant provided by the United States Department of Labor last year.
“The grant gave us the opportunity to develop computer programming to match data with the National Directory of New Hires (NDNH) of the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement,” said Katharine Barondeau, acting director with the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. “This is a great new tool to use in assuring employers that unemployment benefits are paid properly and that those who abuse the system are caught and penalized for their actions."
Under the NDNH, employers report information on newly hired employees to the state child support agency. The state then forwards the information, along with quarterly wage and unemployment insurance records to the National Directory of New Hires, an automated centralized repository of employment information.
Cross-matching information in the NDNH database with unemployment insurance records allows the Division of Employment Security to detect if a person has gone to work almost anywhere in the United States and continued to claim Missouri unemployment benefits. Missouri has been matching in-state new hire records for about eight years, but this expands the amount of information available to detect potential overpayments.
Over 9,000 potential cases have been identified through the NDNH data and are currently being investigated by the Division of Employment Security. The Division anticipates an increase in possible overpayments and should have a better estimate of the success of this new method in three to six months.
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Information and Planning · 421 East Dunklin
· P.O. Box 504 · Jefferson City, MO
65102-0504
573-751-7500 · 573-751-6552 (Fax)
Relay Missouri: 1-800-735-2966 (TDD) 1-800-735-2466 (Voice)