During the pandemic, an unemployment insurance fraud scheme has been targeting unemployment assistance programs across the country. Those who are committing the fraud are believed to be using stolen personal information from earlier national data breaches. There is, however, no indication that these fraudulent claims stem from any breach of MIT data.

If you receive correspondence from the Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA), such as a notice of application, an approval letter, or a DUA debit card, or if you otherwise learn that an unemployment claim has been filed in your name, information about what to do is available on the Human Resources website: https://hr.mit.edu/unemployment-fraud. The most important step to take is to fill out the DUA’s fraud reporting form promptly.

The usual process for unemployment approval is that as soon as a person files a claim with the DUA, the DUA contacts Corporate Cost Control (CCC), MIT’s unemployment claims administrator, with information about the claim. CCC immediately alerts MIT to the claim and confirms whether the claim is legitimate. If it is not legitimate, CCC swiftly notifies the DUA of the fraud, and the claim is stopped.

Unfortunately, due to the dynamics of the pandemic, and in an effort to provide income to those who need it, there have been instances where the DUA has approved unemployment benefits before verifying that the individual is no longer employed. CCC and MIT are objecting to claims that are not legitimate as quickly as possible.

If you have any questions, contact your Human Resources Officer, or Lianne Shields (Director, Employee and Labor Relations), at lshields@mit.edu.

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