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Sunday, April 18, 2021
The Sunflower State has endured the greatest social safety net
FAIL of the pandemic that has been so catastrophic that local charities have emerged to assist victims of ongoing tech crisis.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The COVID-19 pandemic sparked thousands of calls, emails and cries for help to the Kansas Department of Labor. "I was very frustrated because there was such a massive lack of communication on what we were supposed to do next," said Re'Nae Pherigo, president of The Humanity over Politics Foundation.
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A Kansas woman said early Tuesday that a message she got from someone threatening to sexually assault her one-year-old daughter prompted her to end the hunger strike she began eight days earlier outside the headquarters in Topeka of the Kansas Department of Labor.
Re’Nae Pherigo, 29, of Wellington, withdrew so she could go home and protect her family, she wrote in a post on the 1,100-member "Unemployment Hunger Strike Supporters" Facebook page she created.
That message appears to have been removed from that page by early Tuesday afternoon.
Pherigo posted a message that afternoon on that page indicating she would continue working to draw attention to all the people waiting to receive unemployment-related benefits from the state.
Kansas Department of Labor paid nearly $300 million in fraudulent claims last year Megan Stringer and Katie Bernard, The Wichita Eagle
Feb. 24—TOPEKA — While Kansans who lost their jobs clambered to file unemployment claims last year to an overwhelmed state agency, the Kansas Department of Labor paid out at least $290 million and possibly as much as $600 million in fraudulent benefits to people seeking to rip off the system during the pandemic.
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The state labor agency disclosed the amount of unemployment fraud payments late Tuesday after what it called an in-depth analysis of IRS Forms 1099-G, sent annually to those who received unemployment benefits in that calendar year. Most recently, some victims of unemployment fraud in Kansas have also received a 1099-G.
Legislative audit pegs Kansas unemployment fraud at $600 million; KDOL says it's bunk Dion Lefler and Katie Bernard, The Wichita Eagle
Feb. 24—Kansas Legislative auditors are estimating that fraudulent claims accounted for at least $600 million worth of unemployment payments since the COVID-19 pandemic started last year — twice the rate the state Department of Labor is acknowledging.
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"Of the roughly $2.6 billion in state and federal unemployment benefits paid in Kansas in 2020, we estimated about $600 million (24%) could have been fraudulent," said a report prepared by the Legislative Division of Post Audit and presented to a joint House/Senate committee on Wednesday.
The Kansas Department of Labor and the Legislature's auditing division are at odds over how much money has been paid out in fraudulent unemployment claims, with a new estimate released Wednesday saying that as much as $600 million in bogus payments were made last year.
Initial findings from a report issued by the Division of Post Audit used KDOL figures that showed 157,000 claims had been flagged as potentially fraudulent, roughly 24% of the total claims filed in 2020.
The analysis showed roughly $200 million for fraudulent claims came out of the state's regular unemployment program, with the remaining $400 million coming out of federal programs set up during the COVID-19 pandemic to help those without work.
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