DEW launches Nation’s First Real-Time Jail and Unemployment Data Cross Match

As the first workforce agency in the nation to implement a real-time comparison of jail records to unemployment data, the SC Department of Employment and Workforce has realized thousands in cost savings by preventing improper claims from being paid. The agency recently joined forces with Appriss, a data technology solutions company that works to prevent fraud, fight crime and promote public safety. The company developed one of the nation’s first automated victim information and notification system using jail and booking records. The partnership enables DEW to cross-match via a web-based system Appriss’ real-time record of individuals being held in local, county and state jails throughout the country with information in the agency’s unemployment benefits system. State law says a claimant must be able, available and actively seeking work to be eligible for benefits. In the project’s first two months, the agency has stopped almost 70 claims with a cost savings of $15,000, and flagged another 196 claims resulting in a savings of $45,000. “We are extremely proud that South Carolina is once again leading the way in fraud detection and prevention, this time by comparing unemployment claimants’ information with local and state jail system records across the country,” said DEW Executive Director Cheryl M. Stanton. “This partnership provides yet another aggressive tool in our already robust program to stop unemployment fraud.” DEW currently cross-matches unemployment data with S.C. Department of Corrections records, but the Appriss partnership expands the detection scope because it provides incarceration records from 47 states in addition to S.C. county jails. For more information on reporting and preventing unemployment fraud, visit dew.sc.gov/fraud.