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of the South Dakota Retailers Association, said he doesn't know if 50 percent is the right amount, but that some penalty is necessary to indicate fraud will not be tolerated.
• Unemployment insurance provides temporary financial assistance to people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. It is financed by payroll taxes paid by businesses.
• State Unemployment Insurance Director Pauline Heier said fraudulent claims last year amounted to only about $750,000, a small part of the $38.5 million in benefits paid to South Dakota's jobless. Fraudulent claims involve people who say they were laid off when they were actually fired and people who continue to claim unemployment benefits after they have got another job, officials said.

• "There's really no excuse for fraud. These aren't mistakes," Roberts said.
• The department also currently imposes a delay in providing benefits if someone who fraudulently claims benefits eventually has a valid claim -- for every week of benefits received as the result of fraud, a person must wait four weeks.
• Also Monday, the advisory council agreed to keep a provision that triggers a surcharge on employers if the state's unemployment insurance trust

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