DETR cancels Friday briefing, cautioning fraud in written remarks

Nevada’s employment office unexpectedly canceled its weekly media briefing an hour before it was scheduled to start Friday morning but provided written remarks in the afternoon.

It did not provide a reason for the sudden announcement, and the agency did not respond to a request for comment on the explanation. The cancellation follows after last week’s briefing ended abruptly with technical difficulties.

The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation holds its press conference every Friday at 10 a.m.

In a copy of its prepared remarks, Chief Economist Dave Schmidt said the department has paid nearly $5.1 billion in unemployment insurance benefits as of July 16. The figure includes money paid out through the federally-funded unemployment programs from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act.

Schmidt said 17,751 claims have been unpaid because “federal and state law require DETR to adjudicate their claims.” The number also includes claims identified as fraud.

DETR Employment Security Division Administrator Kimberly Gaa emphasized the department’s announcement on Thursday about a quarter change that would impact a filer’s eligibility under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

She also said the appeal functionality for PUA filers should be operating this weekend, which would allow claimants to appeal decisions made by DETR through their account portal.

“Appeal requests for previously issued eligibility determinations will be honored for 30 calendar days,” she said. “Filers will need to watch for communication in their portal after filing their appeals request in August,” she said.

Additional comments were also made about DETR’s efforts to combat fraud — a running theme during the past several media briefings.

Gaa said its fraudulent filings are not related to any known data breaches within the department’s system. She advised filers to not share their personal and financial information to “contacts not initiated by you.”

The remarks came the same day a Special Master’s Report was produced in litigation involving self employed workers and the agency, which detailed DETR’s attempt to handle fraudulent claims.

“DETR has received over 5,000 direct notifications from employers and identity theft victims through its fraud notification form process of potentially fraudulent filings in both PUA and UI,” according to the report.

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaHon Twitter.