Eight Former Georgia Employees Indicted for Unemployment Insurance Fraud

A Fulton County grand jury has indicted eight former state employees on unemployment insurance fraud charges.

Prosecutors say the eight submitted false claims and weekly certifications to the Georgia Department of Labor during the COVID-19 pandemic to receive unemployment insurance benefits when employed by the state. According to the State of Georgia Office of the Inspector General, the eight received $170,931 in unemployment insurance benefits and federal supplements.

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Georgia Unemployment Rate at Record Low

Georgia Department of Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced on Thursday that the unemployment rate for the Peach State in May dipped to an all-time low of three percent as the number of jobs peaked at 4,782,400.

“As the state continues to experience a very tight labor market, as evidenced by our low unemployment rate, our focus has been on encouraging more individuals to re-enter the workforce,” Butler said. “Unless those who have chosen not work decide they want to re-enter the workforce or more people move into the state, additional workers will be scarce.”

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Lawmakers Want Georgia’s Labor Department to Stop Garnishing Wages

More than two dozen Georgia lawmakers want the state’s Department of Labor to stop garnishing the tax refunds of Georgians who are appealing possible Unemployment Insurance benefit overpayments.

More than 30 state legislators sent a letter Friday to Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, asking the department to stop the garnishments and return the garnished wages until the appeals are resolved.

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Georgia’s December Net Tax Revenues Up 24.3 Percent

Georgia’s net tax collections in December totaled $2.98 billion, for an increase of $582.9 million, or 24.3 percent, compared to December 2020 when net tax collections totaled $2.40 billion, state officials announced this month. “Year-to-date, net tax revenue collections totaled $14.85 billion, for an increase of $2.28 billion, or 18.1 percent, over FY 2021 after six months,” according to Governor Brian Kemp’s office.

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Georgia Sets Record-Low Unemployment Rate

Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) officials announced this week that Georgia’s unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a percentage point to 3.2 percent in September. GDOL officials said in an emailed press release that this is an all-time low for Georgia, dipping below the rate of 3.3 percent in January 2020. The number of employed people rose above 5 million for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, while the number of unemployed was reported at 161,786, the lowest level since June 2001.

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Georgia General Assembly Democrats Say New State Program Could Make Them Liable for Criminal Activity

Five Democrats in the Georgia General Assembly said that the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) has created a program that could put them and other state legislators in legal jeopardy. GDOL spokeswoman Kersha Cartwright said Friday that this Legislative Portal Access pilot program gives legislators and members of their respective staffs access to certain unemployment information. Legislators may use this information to act on behalf of their constituents. But each constituent must grant his or her consent first, Cartwright said.

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Locales Across Georgia See Good Employment News; Big-Government and Union-Friendly States Less Well-Off

Georgia has a lower percentage of unemployed residents now than it did immediately before COVID-19 arrived, with some locales, like Warner Robins, experiencing their lowest jobless rates ever.

In Sept. 2020, around six months after the pandemic hit, the small city just south of Macon had a 5.3-percent jobless rate. Two months ago, Warner Robins’s rate fell to 2.9 percent, the city never before having seen such a small fraction of its residents out of work.

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Georgia Department of Labor Refutes Claim It Jeopardized State’s Financial Rating

Georgia Department of Labor officials said claims the agency caused a delay that could harm the state’s financial rating are inaccurate.

Sen. Steve Gooch, R-Dahlonega, said the state could be at risk of losing its AAA rating if the state auditor doesn’t receive additional documents from the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) to complete the state’s end-of-year comprehensive financial report.

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Georgians Demand Answers from Department of Labor on Missed Payments

Georgians are circulating petitions demanding that the state government, particularly the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) begins responding to their requests for information. 

“This petition was started and organized by residents all throughout the State of Georgia that have filed claims with the Georgia Department of Labor,” says a Change.org petition started by Felicia Primus. “Many of Georgia Residents [sic] haven’t received any updates on claims or they’re missing payments from the Department of Labor. GDOL has not provided better Self-service [sic] options for its website or phone support to help with the increasing demand of unemployment claims, during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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Unemployed Workers Sue Georgia Department of Labor over Unprocessed Jobless Claims

Six unemployed Georgians are suing the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL) for its failure to process their unemployment claims.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Georgia, Lisa English was a contracted bookkeeper for a retail company in Fulton County. She was laid off for eight weeks because of the public health shutdowns and applied for unemployment benefits.

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