Lamb: Unemployment Compensation Fraud Hurts State
Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Lamb identifies unemployment compensation fraud as issue to be tackled
by Rick Green
Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb tours all 77 Oklahoma counties every year, meeting with local residents and business owners and finding out what they think of state government.
On previous trips, he heard a lot of complaints about the state’s workers’ compensation system. Business owners said it was too expensive and people were taking advantage of the program.
Now that Oklahoma has reformed its workers’ compensation system, he’s been hearing a new complaint, which he discussed with the governor and her staff in a meeting at the Capitol on Wednesday.
“I’m hearing about the challenges businesses are facing in regards to unemployment compensation,” he said in an interview. “The challenges are analogous to workers’ comp in that it is arbitrary at times, there’s fraud in the system.”
He said he’s yet to find a small business that has won a challenge to a former employee’s unemployment claim. Other examples of fraud are people who are collecting unemployment benefits, but are not looking for work or who have turned down job offers. Unemployment compensation is for employees who are without a job through no fault of their own.