State Representative Ryan Spain released the following statement regarding the Illinois Auditor General’s report that the Illinois Department of Unemployment Security (IDES) paid out $5.24 billion in overpayments, including fraudulent unemployment claims, from 2020 to 2022:
“While my constituents struggled to file legitimate Unemployment claims caused by Democrats’ shutdown of business during COVID, fraudsters and con artists made off with over $5 billion in taxpayer funds. My constituents could not get calls back from the IDES employees who were working from home, but somehow these fraudulent claims were processed remotely and expeditiously. This is the problem Democrats created when they killed checks and balances during the pandemic. The Pritzker Administration should be extremely ashamed they allowed this to happen.”