New report says Oregon paid $24M in fraudulent unemployment benefits

Oregon may have paid more out more than $24 million in fraudulent jobless benefits in 2020.

That’s according to a report from the Oregon Employment Department, as first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The figure includes both suspected and proven fraud.

The losses are a small fraction — less than half a percent — of unemployment benefits paid in 2020. Oregon workers received more than $7 billion in jobless benefits the year the pandemic hit.

The employment agency says it has recovered more than $1 million so far.

Unemployment fraud was a lot worse in other states. Washington lost hundreds of millions of dollars to fraudulent schemes in 2020.