WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King today announced that the U.S. Department of Labor will award the State of Maine a total of $1,000,000 to strengthen its unemployment insurance program. The funding will also help prevent and detect improper benefit payments, improve program performance, address outdated information technology systems, and combat employee misclassification that underpays or denies benefits to workers.

“Unemployment insurance is critical to helping people to support themselves and their families as they work to get back up on their feet after losing their job,” Senators Collins and King said in a joint statement. “This federal funding will help improve the efficiency of this important program and support the state in its effort to give unemployed Mainers the opportunity to get back into the workforce.”

The grant funding is divided evenly between two grants, each totaling $500,000. A Program Integrity and Improvement Grant will help expand the Maine State Information Data Exchange System and the Treasury Offset Program, improve information technology security projects in the state, and develop strategies to reduce improper payments. 

The second grant will support a consortium project that includes Maine, Mississippi, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The consortium will receive a total of $5,701,246 between the four states, and Maine will receive $500,000 to support modernized unemployment insurance information technology systems; improve overall program quality, performance, and integrity; and reduce costs through the multi-state collaboration.

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