State: $11.4 billion paid out in unemployment to more than 2 million people

The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency said it has provided $11.4 billion in benefits to more than 2 million workers in the last three months.

According to the UIA, about 2.1 million eligible people have applied for state and federal benefits.

The agency also said it has cleared a majority of accounts that were flagged for further identify verification due to criminal attacks.

“Our focus remains on getting 100% of eligible Michigan workers 100% of the benefits they deserve. We are using every available resource to verify the identity of legitimate claimants whose payments are held due to increased criminal activity, including 850 dedicated employees and newly formed advanced analytics team,” UIA Director Steve Gray said in a release.

Michigan resumes 140K jobless payments after fraud concerns

According to the agency, about 93% of people who were eligible have received or are approved for benefits. Of the other 7%, most are flagged for suspicion of impostor fraud. 100,000 unpaid claims are flagged as potentially fraudulent while 37,000 are being held pending adjudication for other reasons.

The agency said that they launched an Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force led by AG Dana Nessel to help identify people committing unemployment fraud.

So far, they have cleared more than 200,000 active accounts suspected of fraud, and there are 140,000 more left.