Case Study: Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry halts massive unemployment fraud and restores benefits with ID.me

Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry - Customer Case Study

The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) faced a surge of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims in 2020 and a large backlog of potentially fraudulent and legitimate claimants that threatened timely benefit payments. To stop widespread synthetic identity and social-engineering fraud and rapidly clear the backlog, Pennsylvania contracted ID.me to provide its NIST 800-63-3 LOA3 identity verification platform, deploying a Hosted Landing Page, multi-factor authentication, document and records checks, and a video-call Trusted Referee backup.

ID.me implemented the solution in days, passing security review and going live within seven business days, and delivered measurable results: by February 2021 ID.me had verified over 137,000 legitimate Pennsylvania claimants, stopped approximately 62,500 fraudulent claims (saving taxpayers millions), and enabled nearly 30,000 residents to verify via video call; overall verification success for applicants held at about 92.7%. ID.me’s combination of automated workflows, standalone page, and video verification significantly reduced fraud and increased processing efficiency for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry

Bill Trusky

Deputy Secretary of Unemployment Compensation