No need for weekly reporting for unemployment benefits

Regarding the Jan. 8 letter by Susan Martin: “New unemployment website still not working”: Her excellent letter highlights another example of entrenched corporate and government bureaucrats’ control over our Legislature that for decades put their interests above working men and women.

Currently, any eligible worker for unemployment insurance benefits (usually up to six months) has to file weekly with the state, swearing they looked for work and didn’t work or they won’t receive benefits.

This requirement is a throwback to a different era. It was based on the premise workers are basically dishonest and can’t be trusted to report when they do go back to work.

Now in this computer age, all payroll is reported electronically to the state by employers on a regular basis. So a simple electronic cross-match of state records will catch any culprit of fraud.

The obvious conclusion is workers should have to swear only once when first applying that they will notify the state when they go back to work. And even with the current system, how many workers have been put in jail for fraud? Ninety-nine percent of fraudulent benefits are paid back by the culprits because of the cross-match.

The weekly reporting requirement is a relic of the past and should be scrapped saving millions of dollars and would provide better customer service to workers.

Morgan Davis

Snohomish