State employees have been caught stealing unemployment benefits by an internal Georgia state audit.
WSB’s Justin Gray has learned that Georgia’s State Inspector General has just sent a letter to Governor Brian Kemp identifying more than 280 full-time state employees who erroneously received unemployment insurance (UI) payments in 2020 or 2021.
NEW: I've learned that an internal state investigation found hundreds of full-time state employees illegally collected unemployment benefits during pandemic. @GovKemp was just sent a letter by the state Inspector General - working on this for @wsbtv at 6 https://t.co/Cl4zaXyMjG
— Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) January 4, 2023
These payments averaged $23,700 per employee and totaled over $6.7 million.
One of those was even a Labor Department Unemployment Claims Examiner who received approximately $31,220 and who continued to update a fraudulent UI account while employed with Georgia Department of Labor.
WSB has learned that some employees have been fired and disciplined but others are still on the job.
The new bombshell audit comes after thousands of people waited for months to get their UI benefits during the pandemic and some didn’t get them at all.
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