Unemployment Insurance Fraud
The Employment Department has a variety of methods to audit the accuracy
of Unemployment Insurance payments. Employers are contacted to confirm
reasons for separations. After the end of each calendar quarter,
employers report the names, Social Security numbers and earnings of all
their employees to the Employment Department, as required by law. Our
computer system uses this wage information to find out if anyone worked
while claiming benefits. Our computer system also checks wages earned in
other states against Oregon benefits paid.
Report your work and earnings correctly. Tell us about anything
that keeps you from working or looking for work. You can be prosecuted
if you knowingly make a false statement or fail to disclose information
to get benefits. If found guilty, you could be fined, jailed or both.
At the very least, you will be required to pay back the money. You will
also have to report up to 52 unpaid penalty weeks. During each
penalty week, you must be unemployed and eligible for benefits in every
way. This penalty remains in effect until you claim all the penalty
weeks or five years have passed.
Reporting Unemployment Insurance Fraud
If you have information about unemployment fraud, please call 1-877-668-3204. Or, you may send an e-mail to the Fraud Hotline. We review all tips that we receive, regardless of how much information
you provide. However the more details you can give when reporting
unemployment fraud, the better it will help us in our investigation.
In addition to the name of the individual, and the fraudulent
activity they are doing, providing details such as their address, their
age or date of birth, and/or their social security number will help us
better identify the person in our claim records.
If you are reporting someone working while receiving benefits,
providing the name and address of the employer as well as approximately
how long the individual has been working for them, in addition to the
information above, will help us in reviewing claim and wage records and
determining fraudulent activity.
We keep the information you provide confidential, and you can
ask to remain anonymous when reporting UI fraud. However, due to
confidentiality laws, we are unable to provide the results of any
investigation based on the information you provide. We appreciate your
help.