Calendar year (CY) 1997 data for the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Benefit Accuracy Measurement (BAM) program is summarized in the following table. The BAM program is one component of UI PERFORMS, the U. S. Department of Labor's system for promoting continuous improvement in UI performance.

UI BAM rates are estimates based on randomly selected samples of UI payments. Overpayment and underpayment rates do not represent the actual percentages of errors detected in the population. These estimated rates are subject to sampling and nonsampling errors. The 95 percent confidence intervals for each State's overpayment and underpayment rates equal the estimated error rate plus and minus the value indicated in the column (+/). The true error rate is expected to lie within this interval for 95 percent of the samples of the size selected by the State.

The 26,989 UI payments for which data were collected represents a completion rate of 99.9 percent of the cases sampled in CY 1997. Nonresponse bias is, therefore, not a significant issue. However, other sources of nonsampling error, such as differences among investigators in the interpretation of State unemployment compensation laws and administrative procedures, can effect accuracy rate estimates.

Readers are strongly cautioned that it may be misleading to compare one State's BAM overpayment and underpayment rates with the rates of other States. No two States' written laws, regulations, and policies specifying eligibility conditions are identical, and differences in these conditions influence the potential for error. States with stringent, complex provisions will tend to have higher overpayment rates than those with simpler, more straightforward provisions, for example. No performance standards for UI benefit accuracy have been established.

A compendium of this data is available in the UI PERFORMS CY 1997 Annual Report, which is available by request from the U. S. Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance Service, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, Room S-4522, Washington, DC 20210 (Attn.: Division of Performance Review). This publication also includes data from the Benefit Timeliness and Quality and Tax Performance System programs.

UI Benefit Accuracy Measurement Report -- CY 1997