IAWP 95 th Annual International Educational Conference

1. IAWP95th Annual International Educational Conference Virginia Employment Commission Benefit Payment Control

2. Detection of Overpayments • New Hire Cross-match • Benefit/Wage Cross-match • Local Office/Contact Center/QC Audit/Appeals Referrals • Fraud Hot-Line Referrals • Employer Complaints/Third Party Complaints POSSIBLE FRAUD!

3. New-Hire Cross-matchTypes of Matches • Current claims to detect those individuals who have returned to work and continue to claim benefits. • Claimants who have delinquent overpayments on file, who may have been recently hired and may have a more current address.

4. Types of Matches (cont.) • Claimants whose case is of interest for possible prosecution. VEC has an outstanding warrant and a new address would allow for the warrant to be served. • Claimants who have had a judgment obtained on their delinquent overpayment; location of new employment would allow a garnishment to be placed on their paycheck.

5. Letters • Claimant is sent a letter with new hire information and asked to complete questionnaire and return within 17 days. • Employer is mailed a wage audit letter and asked to complete and return within 10 days.

6. Fliers • Notification to claimants telling them that employers are required to report ALL hires, rehires and quarterly earnings and that we match their Social Security Number against that file. • Notification to claimants advising them that they must report their gross earnings for each week claimed when earned.

7. PROS STOP OP’s! • Overpayments as small as one week are now detected in the match. • 10% reduction in the number of cases that must be referred for prosecution. • Earlier detection results in smaller overpayments. • Claimants failure to respond will automatically place an issue on their claim, after 17 days from the date the letter was mailed.

8. PROS (cont.) • Employers failure to respond will automatically generate a second request, after 30 days from the date the wage audit letter was mailed. • Centralized return letters from claimant and employers. • Immediate scheduling of separation issues for adjudication.

9. PROS (cont.) • Ability to complete more cases without one on one interviews with claimant. • Reduced travel for BPC Investigators. • Ability to establish 17% more overpayments in CY2007 as a result of automation.

10. CONS • Case volume is too great for VA to manage with the limited resources available. • Weekly hit of 300-400 cases is difficult to complete in a timely manner.

11. Establishment of Overpayments • Manually Placing Overpayment on Claimant Files • Placing Disqualification/Ineligibility on File for Weeks Already Paid • Keying Earnings on File After Weeks Have Already Been Paid • Reducing Claimant Entitlement on Weeks Already Paid

12. Recovery of Overpayments • Offset From Current Benefit • Monthly Billing • Income Tax and Lottery Winnings Offset • Private Collection Agency • Civil Court Action • Court Ordered Restitution (Fraud Cases)

13. Prevention of Overpayments • Educating Claimants • Educating Employers • Educating Staff KNOWLEDGE

14. Coordination/Reconciliation Benefit Check/ACH Processing • Audits for Correct Daily Check/ACH Generation • Stop-Payment Processing • Replacement Check Issuing • Forgery of Check Endorsement Processing

15. Verification of Alien Work Authorization (SAVE) • Primary Verification (Mainframe/Web) • Secondary Verification (Mainframe/Web) • Tertiary Verification (Manual Mailing)

16. Overpayment Statistics for 2007 • Overpayments Established----- 17,000 • $ Amount Established-----------13.5 mil • $ Amount Collected------------- 7 mil

17. Roy BryantManager, BPC Roy.Bryant@vec.virginia.gov (804) 786-1160