Rockford Sun

In a Feb. 8 Facebook post, Rep. Jeff Keicher pointed out issues at IDES affecting taxpayers.

"Dysfunction at state agencies under the Pritzker administration has caused Illinois residents unnecessary hardship," Keicher said. "We can give Illinoisans an efficient, transparent state government that works for them by actually addressing the issues at our state agencies rather than making excuses."

According to the Illinois House, Keicher was first elected to the Illinois House in 2018. He is a state representative who resides in DeKalb. A Republican, his legislative experience includes serving on the Appropriations-Higher Education and Immigration & Human Rights Committee. 

In addition, Keicher expressed an urgency to lessen unnecessary hardship for Illinois residents in 2021 regarding issues of fraud.  

“Thousands of Illinois residents, including many here in our community, have been victimized by fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits made in their name in the past year,” Keicher said, according to a press release.

Keicher has spoken out about issues with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) before, and in April 2021, he sponsored a bill to protect individuals' social security numbers on correspondence from the (IDES) as a way to help individuals lessen the chance of identity theft. He introduced the bill on Feb. 19, 2021. It moved to the Senate on April 23, 2021.

In his Facebook post, Keicher shared a link from CBS News that focused on the problems individuals were having in accessing their 1099-G forms for a third year. The form is essential for individuals who receive unemployment benefits – without it, they cannot file their taxes. And for those who were told the form was ready, it was not easy to find. The link in the email took them to the IDES website, but not directly to the download of their form. Instead, individuals had to call IDES and wait for the IDES representative to return their call.

“I have been determined to take meaningful action to help prevent anything like this from occurring again and, thanks to the overwhelming bipartisan support my bill earned, we’re one step closer to putting this simple protection into law,” Keicher said.