State Rep. Chris Miller: House Committee approves performance audit of IDES

State Representative Chris Miller of the 110th District. Photo submitted by State Representative Chris Miller's office.

For Immediate Release – April 29, 2021

Springfield, IL – The House State Government Administration Committee today unanimously approved a measure to require the Auditor General to conduct a performance audit of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, according to State Representative Chris Miller (R-Oakland).

House Joint Resolution 17 directs the Illinois Auditor General to conduct a performance audit of the Illinois Department of Employment Security and to issue a report.

“I am sponsoring this legislation because of the number of phone calls my office has received from constituents who have had difficulties dealing with IDES,” Miller said. “The process of calling the Department and waiting for a call back does not seem to be working.”

As of March, news reports indicated that were still 100,000 callbacks waiting in the queue. Just a couple of weeks, CBS 2 in Chicago did a story on a man, Jeremiah Loveless, who lost his home, his savings, his car, and everything while waiting for IDES to call him back. All he wanted to do was update his information so that he could start receiving his benefits and pay his bills. He was promised a call, but it never came.

“There are many stories like this,” Miller said. “We owe it to our constituents to get to the bottom of what is happening so that we can prevent this disaster in the future. During the pandemic, Illinois has lost 500,000 jobs. The people who once held these jobs need the services of IDES more than ever and unfortunately, they are not getting anything close to the service they deserve. We need to understand what is going and why these problems are occurring and that is what this resolution accomplishes.”

House Joint Resolution 17 moves to the House floor for a vote.