Media Release from the Ohio Inspector General’s office
Columbus, Ohio, – In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased unemployment of millions of Americans, Congress passed various programs to address the crisis, including the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. The PUA program expanded and loosened eligibility unemployment requirements for recipients. Consequently, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), the agency responsible for distributing PUA benefits in Ohio, received an unprecedented number of unemployment compensation claims. This increase in claims necessitated ODJFS to hire intermittent and temporary contracted workers to process the claims. In fiscal year 2021, ODJFS disbursed approximately $7.6 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits and later, ODJFS identified millions of dollars of the disbursals as fraudulent. To address the rampant fraud connected to the PUA program, an investigative group was established that consisted of the Office of the Ohio Inspector General, Ohio State Highway Patrol, United States Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, and ODJFS.
On February 15, 2022, ODJFS referred an allegation of wrongdoing involving former Randstad employee, Customer Service Assistant 2 Sandra Schnieders. Randstad was subcontracted to provide contract workers to process PUA claims. ODJFS alleged Schnieders, during her employment at Randstad, filed for her own PUA benefits, improperly accessed her own PUA claim during and after business hours, and failed to report all of her earnings from Randstad. ODJFS further alleged Schnieders improperly searched for and accessed specific PUA claimants’ information, redetermined their monetary figures, and backdated their claims, all of which were actions Schnieders was not authorized to perform. From a review of the 903 claims accessed by Schnieders, the investigation determined that Schnieders improperly accessed and fraudulently released PUA funds for 20 claims, totaling $112,240. The investigation also discovered that three of the 20 fraudulent claims were connected to family members or friends of Schnieders. Investigators further reviewed Schneiders own PUA claim and found that she failed to report her earnings from her employment at Randstad and had improperly received PUA payments she was not entitled to receive, totaling $18,870…