001 Electronic Payment Card Services for Unemployment Compensation Benefit Payments, and Additional Proposed Programs Q&A

Description

RFP26-001 Electronic Payment Card Services for Unemployment Compensation Benefit Payments, and Additional Proposed Programs The following questions were sent to the Issuing Office Mailbox regarding RFP26-001. On behalf of PA Treasury, the responses are in blue. Questions & Answers: 1. Please describe the fraud prevention, identity verification, and account validation controls currently used by PA L&I before unemployment benefits are issued. Please also summarize any fraud-related enhancements implemented in the last few years, and provide available metrics demonstrating their effectiveness. Finally, please describe the expected role of the selected contractor in supporting fraud prevention, monitoring, investigations, and recovery efforts. At a high level, L&I employs a layered approach to fraud prevention and program integrity prior to the issuance of unemployment compensation benefits. This includes identity verification, eligibility validation, cross-matching with available federal and state data sources, account and claimant validation, and risk-based review processes designed to detect potentially fraudulent activity before payments are authorized. Claims that trigger established risk indicators may be held for additional review and investigation before benefits are released. Over the past several years, L&I has continued to enhance its fraud prevention capabilities through the implementation of additional identity verification measures, expanded data matching, improved fraud detection analytics, and strengthened investigative and program integrity processes. These enhancements are intended to reduce fraudulent claims while supporting timely benefit delivery to eligible claimants. Based on the information Treasury is requesting in the RFP, Treasury expects the vendor to play a very important role in fraud prevention and detection. The selected contractor is expected to serve as an additional layer of fraud prevention and detection within the debit card environment. This includes monitoring accounts and transaction activity for suspicious behavior, providing timely alerts and relevant account information, supporting L&I and Treasury investigations in completing lawful information requests, and assisting with appropriate account restrictions and recovery of funds when fraud is identified. 2. Please provide historical and current claimant cash access trends, along with any initiatives undertaken since 2023 to encourage electronic payment adoption.