Kansas Department of Labor Deploys New Security System to Fight Unemployment Insurance Fraud
The Kansas Department of Labor (KDOL) has announced a partnership with LexisNexis to deploy identity verification software for unemployment insurance accounts and claims.
The deployment of the new security system will be a major tool to combat identity theft.
To deploy this system, KDOL will need to take the unemployment benefit servers offline to upgrade them. This deployment procedure is similar to other states that have also implemented identity verification software solutions.
"Since the start of the pandemic, the Kansas Department of Labor has been fighting two battles – processing a record number of unemployment claims with 40-year old IT systems and a record number of fraud,” said Governor Laura Kelly. “These upgrades will identify and stop the flood of fraudulent claims Kansas and states across the country have been fighting against, so the team at the Department of Labor will have more time to help unemployed Kansans."
Once these security tools are deployed and are running, KDOL expects to see a decline or outright elimination of fraudulent benefit notices that individuals and businesses have been receiving from KDOL. The system will also provide two-factor authentication so that claimants will be able to more securely log in and access their account.
In order to lessen the impact to claimants needs, KDOL plans to take the servers offline beginning on Saturday, January 30. The agency expects to complete the upgrade, and return to normal operations, by Tuesday morning, February 2. In order to ensure unemployment benefit payments are not made on fraudulent claims, KDOL will hold payment of Regular Unemployment benefits until the new system is operational on February 2, 2021. Claimants will get any back pay owed as a result of the hold at that time.
Benefit payments to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program will not be impacted by the upgrade, but claimants will have to verify their identity within the new system when it becomes operational. Once the new identification verification system is brought back online, every claimant will be required to verify his or her identity by answering questions specific to the person's credit history. Once an identity is verified, the system will prompt the claimant to setup two-factor authentication for her or his benefit account moving forward. This additional layer of security is an important factor in protecting KDOL unemployment insurance accounts. This aspect of the anti-fraud solution will be delivered by adaptive multi-factor authentication vendor Okta. For KDOL systems integration, the agency is with its existing partner, Accenture.
The partnership with LexisNexis will also enable KDOL to make payments more quickly to legitimate claimants while simultaneously helping KDOL fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities. KDOL is continuing to aggressively monitor claims for fraudulent activity and is actively working with federal law enforcement officials to bring criminals to account.
Since March 15, 2020, KDOL has paid out over 3.9 million weekly claims totaling over $2.6 billion between regular unemployment and the federal pandemic programs. For more information, or to apply for unemployment benefits, go to www.GetKansasBenefits.gov.
(Information courtesy KDOL.)