California says most halted disability claims are fraudulent

(KYMA, KECY/ AP News) - California officials have confirmed that nearly all of the 345,000 disability checks suspended because of fraud concerns were in fact associated with criminals trying to trick the state into paying them.

The Employment Development Department announced earlier this month that they had halted payments on those 345,000 disability claims and Thursday the department confirmed it had verified the identity of just 485 of those doctors — meaning about 98% of them are likely fraudulent.

The Employment Development Department has been plagued by fraud since the start of the pandemic, mostly in unemployment benefits, but they could not say how much money was associated with the latest fraudulent disability claims.

Regardless, the department has had trouble distinguishing between fraudulent and legitimate claims, meaning lots of people with legitimate claims have had their payments halted while state officials sort things out.