Sangamon Sun

A July 26 report on an audit of the Illinois Department of Employment Security caught Senator Sally J. Turner’s attention and she reacted to the findings of the audit in a July 26 Facebook post. That audit revealed $5.2 billion in improperly paid benefits, some of which were due to identity theft.

"I am outraged by the complete mismanagement of our state’s unemployment insurance program that this audit shows," said Turner. "It is truly hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that more than $5 billion of unemployment benefits were improperly paid out in just two years and that only a tenth of that money has been recovered." 

Senator Turner was first elected to the Illinois Senate in 2021. A Republican, their legislative experience includes serving on the Ethics Committee and Senate Higher Education Committee. Turner is a state senator who resides in Beason, according to the Illinois Senate.

A Yahoo/Fox News report notes: “Of the $5.2 billion, the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) overpaid by about $2 billion for regular unemployment insurance and by $3.2 billion for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) put in place following the outbreak of COVID. Overall, $2.8 billion has been classified as identity theft – money not considered recoverable since it can't be collected from the identity theft victim. According to the audit, only about a 10th of the total $5.2 billion has been recovered.”

In her Facebook post, Turner shared a link to her statement on the IDES audit. Her statement concluded: "What they do deserve is answers to how this was allowed to happen and what the administration is doing to rectify the problems created by their own gross incompetence.”

The report, published on July 26, is available here.

WAND-TV reported that despite IDES claims that the limits of the federal pandemic unemployment aid system and data errors were the biggest problems when it came to determining eligibility, the auditor’s office said that IDES didn’t use specific controls to ensure that individuals’ self-certification was accurate.

This isn't the first audit that has pointed out fraud and issues with the pandemic unemployment assistance program during the pandemic. In 2022, the auditor's office found that "of the $3.6 billion in PUA paid out from July 2020 through June 2021, nearly $1.9 billion was found to be fraudulent, mostly due to identity theft," according to a July 2022 report from the State Journal-Register.

"The lack of planning and poor decision-making committed by IDES throughout this report are beyond concerning," said Turner. "The people and businesses of our state do not deserve to pay for the state’s mishandling of this program."

The National Federation of Independent Business issued a statement on the report as well, noting that “The Governor and General Assembly fully paid the $4.5 billion U.I. debt that Illinois owed the U.S. Department of Labor as a result of the 2020 COVID pandemic economic shutdown. NFIB was instrumental in the negotiations that resulted in the use of ARPA funds to pay off the UI debt.”