Earlier this month it was reported that California had paid out millions in fraudulent unemployment claims.
Now, a new audit says California's unemployment agent may have overpaid millions of people since March of 2020.
A report from California State Auditor Elaine Howle, obtained by the Associated Press, says the state did not enforce some eligibility rules in order to process an unprecedented volume of claims.
Up to 4.1 million claimants could have to repay some or the entirety of the unemployment benefits they received during the pandemic.
The agency has "no clear plan" on how to address that backlog, according to the audit.
The COVID-19 pandemic has left many Californians unemployed as early as March and the agency is struggling to handle a workload they have never experienced before.
In early January the department suspended payment for 1.4 million people as they worked to verify each claim after it was discovered that 3.5 million unemployment claims were potentially fraudulent.
The California Employment Development Department also acknowledged that they may have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 benefits to fraudulent accounts.
An investigation found that thousands of claims had been filed by prison inmates and benefits had been paid out to organized crime circles in other countries.
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