Unemployment Audit

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ A second independent audit of South Carolina’s unemployment agency shows the system that checks whether people getting jobless benefits were also being paid at a job didn’t work properly for six years. The Legislative Audit Council’s latest report released Tuesday also found the Department of Employment and Workforce also does not consistently verify that people receiving jobless benefits are looking for work. The report was the second in the past two years. It did praise some actions taken since the last audit in 2010, including work to make sure the trust fund that pays benefits is brought back in balance by 2015. The state currently owes the federal government $850 million in loans used to pay the sharp increase in people looking for unemployment benefits during the Great Recession.