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A server in Mississippi applies for unemployment after losing her new job at an event venue that closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But she works on contract and a botched investigation into her previous employment deems her ineligible for Unemployment Insurance.

Another woman who hadn’t worked in nearly two years applies for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, simply checking the box labeled “unemployed due to the pandemic” on her online claim. She begins receiving the benefits immediately.

The two scenarios illustrate the deeply complex — and often unfair — ways that states deliver unemployment benefits, especially during unprecedented disasters, according to interviews with two sources who have worked directly with the system. The Mississippi Department of Employment Security, which administers unemployment in the state, did not grant Mississippi Today’s request for an interview with top officials for this story.

Dawna Petty, who qualified for unemployment after her Hattiesburg employer temporarily closed due to COVID-19, spent two and a half months fighting an appeal on her unemployment case before she received any funds.

Dawna Petty, the Hattiesburg server and a single mom, went without a paycheck for more than two and a half months and even received an eviction notice as she navigated the mind-numbing unemployment process.

“I was in unemployment limbo. An unemployment nightmare,” she said.

The agency didn’t even initially tell her it had denied her claim due to inaccurate information an old employer gave the agency, and for weeks she failed to get through the department’s overwhelmed call center to clear up the issue. She successfully appealed and eventually received her debit card in the mail in early June.

And yet many others, including fraudsters, have sailed smoothly through the system.

Unemployment fraud — which usually occurs when someone uses another person’s information to file claims — is more likely to go unchecked during this current crisis due to the large volumes of claims, the increased payments and the less rigorous eligibility determination the agency imposes on Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims.

Like other states, some of which actually froze unemployment payments due to widespread fraud, Mississippi will likely pay millions on fraudulent claims during the pandemic, experts estimate.

“The scope of the likely misspending is huge,” Matt Weidinger, longtime deputy staff director of the House Committee on Ways and Means, wrote in a post for public policy think tank American Enterprise Institute in May. “Even before the crisis, UI had a high payment error rate of 10.6 percent, resulting in improper payments of nearly $3 billion in the year ending June 30, 2019. If the same error rate applies to the massive $268 billion increase in projected federal UI benefit spending over the coming year, the $28 billion misspent would exceed all state UI benefits paid last year.”

Officials from Mississippi Department of Employment Security told WLOX it has received dozens of calls from Mississippians who say someone has used their information to file unemployment claims without their knowledge. The agency said in a June 4 email to Mississippi Today that it does not have an estimate for how many fraudulent or improper claims it has paid. “There are no measurements because claim filing and payments are continuous and cannot be defined presently; but we will have it at a later date and time,” it said.

As for recouping funds paid out erroneously, “the agency is in the process of defining these measures and once they are finalized, it will be released to the media.”

In order to root out fraud, the traditional unemployment insurance system contains an exhaustive list of questions claimants must answer and a process by which agency employees verify that the information is accurate, such as by contacting employers. But the process can also cause long delays for people with legitimate claims, who desperately need timely assistance to keep afloat after losing their jobs through no fault of their own.

“There is that trade off between safeguards (to prevent fraud) and speed (of processing claims) and I’m not sure we’ve achieved that balance very well,” said State Auditor Shad White.

White said his office plans to help in ongoing federal investigations into fraud schemes within the state’s unemployment system.

During disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005, states have sometimes taken the approach of doling out funds first, to make sure people receive the help they need, then identifying and recouping any overpayments on the back end.

Like delivering water through a line, White said, some water loss is the “price you’re willing to pay” to get it where it needs to go.

White worries, however, that large amounts of money lost to sophisticated out-of-state or even international fraud schemes will be difficult to claw back.

Washington state, which made national headlines as the subject of one of the largest schemes, was able to recoup $300 million in payments made to unemployment scammers, several outlets reported.

Mass layoffs amid COVID-19 and the policies Congress enacted to help struggling families — primarily bumping weekly benefits by $600 and expanding eligibility to the self-employed and contract workers who would not have otherwise qualified for the benefit — has compounded the nation’s already deeply complicated unemployment insurance system.

Normally to qualify for unemployment in Mississippi, a person must have worked at an employer that pays unemployment insurance; made enough money in the previous year to qualify for benefits; and have been laid off or fired for a reason other than misconduct. A person who voluntarily quits their job is not typically eligible for benefits.

In determining eligibility, the department looks at the amount of wages a person earned during the previous year, prior to three months before they submitted the claim.

Even though Petty had started a new contract gig that she lost due to the pandemic, she had eligible W-2 wages from a job she left in 2019, so the state set her up with a traditional unemployment claim. The employer erroneously indicated she voluntarily quit, she said, automatically disqualifying her due to what’s called a “separation issue.”

She appealed the denial and it took roughly two months for an investigator to rectify her case.

The other woman, whose last job at a factory ended in 2018, did not have sufficient wages to qualify for traditional unemployment, so she filed a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claim, which does not consider wages since it is designed for people, such as the self-employed, who do not have eligible wages.

Unlike the traditional Unemployment Insurance claim, the agency does not have a consistent policy to follow up with any employers or require tax records to verify that the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applicant’s information is correct, according to sources.

The claim is simply approved and set up to start receiving payments, whereas another legitimate claim might trigger an investigation that could last several weeks, partly because the agency is sorely lacking the number of investigators needed to handle the large influx of claims due to COVID-19. By June 6, the number of people who filed Unemployment Insurance claims in Mississippi since the pandemic began soared to a record-breaking nearly 340,000. The agency separately reported it had established 81,000 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims by May 30.

“I do think that is very unfair and frustrating that other people were getting things I qualified for,” Petty said. “Mine was stuck and there was nothing I could do.”

People who believe their identity has been used within the fraud scheme may report the incident to Mississippi Department of Employment Security at safe@mdes.ms.gov or (800)843-8923 or to the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General at oig.dol.gov/hotline.htm, 202-693-6999 or 1-800-347-3756.

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Rogelio V. Solis, AP

Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups parade on the grounds of the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016.

A group of Democratic senators filed a resolution on Thursday to change Mississippi’s state flag, the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem.

The move means conversations about changing the flag are openly occurring in both chambers of the Capitol for the first time since 2001. Earlier this week, a bipartisan group of House members had privately discussed the issue and begun whipping votes.

The Senate rules suspension, filed on Thursday on 12 Senate Democrats, is required because the legislative deadline has passed to consider a bill to change the flag. It would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers to pass the suspension resolution.

“We are going to see where the votes are,” said Sen. Derrick Simmons of Greenville, the Senate Democratic leader. Simmons said multiple Republicans have indicated to him they support changing the flag. Still, most concede it would be a long shot at best to change the flag at this point in the session.

But in the midst of the recent protests over police brutality and the death of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement in Minneapolis, there has been renewed interest by some in trying to change the flag. Many view the Confederate battle emblem as a racist symbol, and national groups like NASCAR have banned the image in recent days as protests over racial inequities continue across the nation.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann will most likely refer the resolution filed Thursday to the Rules Committee chaired by Sen. President Pro Tem Dean Kirby, R-Pearl. Kirby said he does not believe the Legislature should change the flag on its own. He said he would support a vote of the people – similar to what occurred in 2001, when about 64 percent of Mississippi voters opted to keep the old flag.

“Put it on the ballot and let the people make this decision,” Kirby said. “I think that’s where you’ll find most Republicans are on this — at least that’s what they tell me…. (The 2001 referendum) was probably the largest vote we ever had in Rankin County of presidential, statewide, you name it.”

Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, said he supports keeping the old flag, but would not be opposed “to a conversation” on the issue if it was placed on the ballot through a citizen-sponsored initiative instead of through the Legislature.

Sen. Scott DeLano, R-Biloxi, said he is undecided on changing the flag.

“I’d have to see what is proposed, brought forward and how it is brought forward,” DeLano said. “I am concerned that the Legislature doesn’t give it proper due diligence and debate. I want to see it given the proper attention it needs.”

Sen. Walter Michel, R-Ridgeland, was one of few Republican legislators to say publicly Thursday he supported replacing the flag.

Michel said he voted in 2001 to change it and would do so again if it came to a referendum — or if it came before the Senate.

“I’m not afraid to vote as a senator to change it, either,” Michel said. “I’m for changing it.”

One issue that has muddled the debate for some is what flag would replace the current one. The bipartisan group of House members support the Stennis flag.

“I am for any viable alternative to the current flag,” said Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, one of the co-sponsors of the Senate suspension resolution filed on Thursday. Simmons echoed similar sentiments.

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Magee Elementary School students participate in phonics and phonemic awareness exercise Friday, December 6, 2019.

This week the Mississippi Department of Education released guidelines for how K-12 schools should reopen in the fall.

In a document titled “Considerations for reopening Mississippi Schools,” the department outlines a three month timeline with information for school districts to consider as they plan for the upcoming school year. These guidelines were created with a group of 10 superintendents across the state, and list three options for how schools should reopen: traditional, hybrid, or virtual. The guidelines will be updated every three months depending on the coronavirus and its effects. The Institutions of Higher Learning already made the decision that the state’s public colleges and universities will “resume traditional operations” in the fall.

Traditional reopening would mean students are physically present in school so long as districts can continue to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state department of health guidelines. This plan suggests schools make adjustments to transportation, screen students daily, and limit student movement and gatherings so that social distancing is possible. Additionally, schools are encouraged to create a plan for students and staff who are unable to come to school due to health issues.

A hybrid reopening would mean some combination of in-person instruction and distance learning. Schools could adopt “A/B days,” meaning students would be split into two groups which report to school on alternating days. The guidelines also have the option for elementary students to report to school for in-person instruction, while students in higher grades complete their work through distance learning. Schools could also do some combination of the two options, the guidelines state.

Virtual reopening would have students return to school entirely through distance learning, but the guideline warns that districts must take into consideration whether their community has sufficient internet bandwidth and can mitigate “the digital divide among families.”

The state is not mandating which option districts take. “Local school districts are responsible for designing school schedules that best meet the needs of their communities,” the department said in a press release. 

At a Mississippi State Board of Education meeting Thursday, members suspended several policies to help school districts meet requirements and choose one of these three avenues.

For example, in the past the department has required that all students receive 5.5 hours of instructional time per day. That has now been reduced to 4 hours. A similar exception was made for high schools that use Carnegie unit credits to measure course completion. Previously, there was a 140-hour instructional requirement for one-credit courses and a 70-hour instructional requirement for half-credit courses. Now, that will be waived as long as districts, “develop a plan to ensure students master the course content,” the press release states. 

Those plans must be approved by districts’ local school boards and posted to their websites by September 30. 

Also, school districts no longer have to seek a waiver from the State Board of Education or Commission on School Accreditation if they can’t comply with student-teacher ratios. 

Some policies that have been in place will remain for the 2020-2021 school year —districts still have to establish graduation requirements that meet the state’s minimum graduation requirements. 

Before the first day of school, local school districts also have to create criteria for whether a student can move on to the next grade as well as come up with “uniform grading policies,” MDE stated in its press release.  

If the previous school year is any indication, a hybrid return will likely be popular option. During the 2019-20 school year when school buildings closed because of the pandemic, the department surveyed school districts on how they were delivering instruction. In all, 13 said they were using distance or virtual learning, 16 were sending home packets, and 134 were using a blended approach of the two methods. Five districts said they were using alternative approaches, such as phone calls and peer tutoring, according to the department.

Going entirely virtual is a complicated and expensive undertaking the department is actively working on, as the start of a new school year is roughly eight weeks away. Online learning is not currently a reality in many districts. Census Bureau data shows that statewide, almost one-fifth of Mississippi households do not have a computer and nearly one-third don’t have broadband, the federal standard for internet speeds.

Last month, State Superintendent Carey Wright presented a digital learning plan to the Mississippi Legislature which highlighted five main areas: technology, curriculum, training, computer security and internet connectivity as resources needed for districts to fully implement a digital learning plan. Requirements would include roughly 300,000 laptops or tablets, 40,000 WiFi hotspots, eight high-quality curricula programs, training for students and families, professional development for 30,000 teachers and 450 technology staff, device management support and software licenses, costing nearly $250 million. 

The state received millions in federal funds via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act which the department intends to use to help pay for this. Gov. Tate Reeves received $34.6 million in a specific fund to be used for education, and the state’s K-12 schools received $169.8 million through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund. Separately, the Mississippi Legislature has control of $1.2 billion in federal funds to be used for coronavirus relief efforts. 

To pay for the $250 million price tag, the department has requested $200 million from the Legislature’s portion of federal funds. The Legislature is still in session working out the state budget, so whether the department is granted those funds remains to be seen.

To pay for the rest, $33 million would have to come from local school districts’ portion of ESSER funds; $5 million from the department’s CARES Act funds; $5 million from the governor’s portion of education CARES Act funds, and $7 million in private funds were requested from the Mississippi Alliance of Nonprofits, according to the department.

“This is such a wonderful opportunity for the state, and…absent COVID-19 and the funding that comes with that, we probably would never have seen this kind of investment in the school districts of Mississippi in my lifetime,” said board member John Kelly during the Thursday meeting.

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