According to the state audit, the DWD failed to answer 1.7 million calls about unemployment and overpaid nearly $168M in benefits.
The Legislative Audit Bureau released its findings Tuesday, that the overpayments occurred over a three-year period (fiscal years 2011-2014) and 85% were due to people unintentionally providing the agency with incorrect information.
In March, the DWD noted recovering $24M in overpayments, and from people who intentionally misled the agency.
As for phone calls that went unanswered, the audit states that the department's call centers were too busy to answer 1.7 million inquiries from people wanting to claim unemployment benefits. Most of the unanswered calls were reportedly placed between December 2013 and January, 2014.
DWD claims the actual number of callers is fewer, because some people called back several times.