Staff Reports
Two Republican lawmakers are joining the Department of Economic Opportunity in the fight against unemployment-benefits fraud.
State Sen. Kelli Stargel of Lakeland and state Rep. Mike La Rosa of St. Cloud on Monday filed legislation (SB 1216/HB 1017) called the “DEO Cybercrime Prevention Act.”
“In the past two years, DEO’s state-of-the-art technology has prevented more than 135,000 fraudulent claims for benefits from being processed,” according to a news release. “Had full benefits been paid on these claims, $558 million in taxpayer dollars would have been stolen.”
The measures add tools to fight identity theft and increase penalties. From the release:
The legislation includes additional resources for DEO and legal authorizations to prevent and fight public benefits fraud in Florida, including:
- Create a criminal investigations unit of sworn officers and investigators to focus on data analytics, utilize cutting-edge technology to investigate and build cases, and coordinate with local and federal law enforcement in a multifaceted approach to fighting criminals who use identity theft to fraudulently file for re-employment assistance.
- Allow access to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle’s DAVID System for photo identification from the driver’s license database to validate re-employment assistance claims.
- Increase penalties for those who fraudulently apply for benefits.
- Streamline the process to recover benefits received through fraud.
- Continue implementation of the highly successful FIRRE (Fraud Initiative and Rules Rating Engine) system. Since initial implementation in 2014, FIRRE has successfully detected more than 135,000 fraudulent claims and prevented payment of $558 million in potential fraudulent claims.
Cissy Proctor, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity‘s chief of staff, will lead the agency as of Jan. 9, succeeding outgoing executive director Jesse Panuccio.
