Looking at a computer key quoting “Searching unemployment benefits” online
Is progress being made in processing unemployment claims?
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Scott LaMar
Looking at a computer key quoting “Searching unemployment benefits” online
Airdate: August 16, 2022
An area woman recently lost her job as her employer explained “they wanted to go in another direction.” She reached out to the state to determine whether she qualified for unemployment compensation and she kept track of her communications. The woman called 211 times the first day, finally got through and was on hold for two hours. She talked with someone for 15 minutes. That person made a mistake and the woman had to call back the next day. She made 60 calls before getting through only to be on hold for a long time again, but did eventually get to talk with someone. It’s yet to be determined whether she’ll get unemployment compensation or not.
Overall, unemployment claims are dropping from the high of a million in May of 2020 when so many people lost their jobs. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry hired more people to handle the claims but there still is some frustration in getting through and getting answers.
WITF’s Capitol Bureau Chief Sam Dunklau reported on this and was on Tuesday’s Smart Talk where he described a system that wasn’t equipped to handling the vast number of claims that came in or even answer telephone calls in a timely manner,”There is still a pretty significant backlog that employees at large are trying to get through. Now, to the degree that call center employees help with that, I’m not sure. But I know that there are claims adjusters and claims folks that specifically deal with pandemic claims that are working through somewhere on the order of 63,000 people that have still needed their claims adjudicated, that there might have been something wrong with their initial application. The department might have needed more information from their employer. It could be a whole list of things, but that that backlog has steadily come down from like the few hundreds of thousands in the early and middle parts of the pandemic. But 63,000 people to get through is still somewhat difficult. And on top of the the other issue that’s at play here is that it’s been difficult for the department to hire people. The department asked for 100 people to apply, only got 80 applications back and ended up hiring every one of them. They described the job as difficult to do. The hours are long. The frustrations that people face on both ends are difficult and taxing on people.”
Dunklau said those looking to make a claim may have more success by going to a state CareerLink office to apply.
