Fraud Still Upending Effort to Update State Unemployment Systems

States are still grappling with fraudulent claims pouring into their unemployment insurance systems months after expanded emergency pandemic jobless aid expired, underscoring the challenge the Biden administration faces with overhauling the safety net.

“It’s still enormous,” said Michele Evermore, deputy director for policy at DOL’s new Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization. “It’s not as big as it was in 2020, and we keep working on solutions. When it comes to fraud, it’s baked into all of our different areas of work.”

While the Biden administration has doled out millions of dollars in grants to help states fight the fraud, and ...