Lack of Enforcement Costs State $250 million

by Gary Snyder

Nonprofit Imperative constantly tells you that restitution is seldom discharged (3.2% is):

In a Michigan auditor general's report, the agency—the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth—failed to collect tens of millions of dollars in overpayments and failed to assess and collect hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution and penalties for fraudulent claims. Rather than cutting off benefits immediately to claimants suspected of fraud, the agency continued to make payments while it referred the case to a fraud unit that had a one-year backlog. The audit found $72.5 million in overpayment of benefits and unassessed penalties of between $120 million and $236.6 million. In a response included with the audit, the agency attributed some of the problems to the huge caseload increase that resulted from the lengthy recession in Michigan.