Governor Beshear and his office’s legal counsel Friday afternoon updated the public on unemployment claims tied to coronavirus.
Amy Cubbage said there are some 90,000 unresolved claims. But she added as much as two-thirds of that number could be fraudulent.
“Because of all the money related to these pandemic related programs, we have a flood of fraudulent claims. So, that’s part of why it takes us so long to process these claims,” said Cubbage.
Cubbage noted Governor Beshear has authorized a thousand dollar payment to each Kentuckian waiting for a claim answer.
Meanwhile, the governor said Kentucky is seeing an escalation in COVID-19 cases. Beshear reported 4750 new cases and 13 additional deaths. The governor was asked about the possibility of increasing restrictions. Beshear said it’s still too soon to call it a sustained surge. “Now, we need more time to see it. We need to see where it’s going and to talk to experts like Dr. Stack and on the federal side about what they believe could be causes whether it’s a mutated strand, whether it’s these private get-togethers,” explained Beshear.
Beshear also reacted to general assembly action this week on bills to modify executive branch authority. He said his staff has appeared more than 40 times to testify and answer questions from lawmakers about restrictive measures. Beshear labeled that consultation.?
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