There are two main crossmatch programs designed to detect inappropriate payment of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.  The Wage Record Crossmatch program compares the quarterly wages reported by employers against the UI benefit payment file to detect potentially unreported or misreported wages.  This crossmatch program is labor intensive, usually starts after the person has stopped filing for benefits and generally involves reviewing employer records, which could date back three years.  An answer to Frequently Asked Questions involving this program are provided for your convenience. 

The New Hire Crossmatch program implements new methodology for helping to identify and prevent unemployment insurance fraud.  Since the mid-1990's, employers have been required to report each new hire within 10 days of the date the employee begins work. This new hire reporting was originally intended to assist with the collection of past due child support payments owed by non-custodial parents.  However, the ability to more quickly identify individuals who may be both working and collecting unemployment benefits has long been recognized as another appropriate use of the data collected as part of the New Hire program.

In 2004, the department began to develop a process to use the information in the State Directory of New Hires to identify individuals who are both claiming benefits and working. With the recent approval to use the National Directory of New Hires for purposes of unemployment insurance fraud prevention, the department has a complete and comprehensive tool that will not only help us catch individuals who are both working and receiving benefits, but also will reduce the amount of these overpayments as we learn about them more quickly. Many overpayments are the result of individuals going back to work who do not stop filing until they receive their first paycheck, when the law actually requires individuals to stop filing as soon as they go back to work. Though these types of overpayments may be more a result of confusion over the rules than actual and intentional fraud, by identifying them early they can be stopped, or if not stopped immediately, they can be more quickly recovered. It is much easier to recover a smaller overpayment than a large one. So now employers have two good reasons to report all new hires within 10 days of the date the individual starts work.

Both integrity crossmatch programs are administered by our Program Integrity Unit.