Workers receive one year of unemployment benefits. It causes problems

It’s been about a year since millions of Americans applied for unemployment benefits in the early days of the Covid pandemic.

This anniversary seems to pose administrative problems in some states. These may result in delays in benefits or a lower than anticipated amount of aid.

“I think it’s an obstacle that catches some people,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior executive at The Century Foundation.

Claims for unemployment benefits began to intensify in the week of March 14, 2020, as the coronavirus sent shock waves to the labor market.

More than 24 million people have claimed benefits next month, according to the Department of Labor. Millions more applied in the coming weeks.

Such individuals reach the end of the “benefit year”.

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People looking for benefits after this point – which marks a year since they applied for assistance – usually trigger a review from state employment agencies.

States review a worker’s recent earnings history to determine if they are still eligible for benefits.

Usually, someone who did not find work during the year of service would not be eligible for more help. This could apply to a large group of workers – about a quarter of unemployed in March have been out of work for at least a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Someone who found a job but had a substantial gap in work would generally qualify for a lower weekly benefit. (They may also be ineligible, depending on the state and total income.)

Meanwhile, the US Rescue Plan has extended unemployment benefits for workers through Labor Day.

These two competing forces seem to cause some problems for states and, in some cases, delay benefits for workers.

However, the problems vary by state and by specific end-of-year benefit payment schedule, according to Michele Evermore, senior counselor for unemployment insurance at the US Department of Labor.

“As we have discussed in the last year, any administrative hurdle will be a challenge for claimants and there is no hurdle that every worker can remove,” Evermore said in an email.

For example, the California Department of Employment Development on Thursday notified workers that most should seek help again when they reach the end of the year.

These requests can take up to three weeks to process, the agency said.

Twenty-one days is the standard barometer for the “timely” payment of unemployment benefits. But it also means that some people may be without income for a few weeks.

New claims must go through fraud screens and identity verification as a guarantee, the California labor office said.

“The massive expansion of federal benefits under the American Rescue Plan comes at a time when many Californians are reaching the end of their initial benefit claims,” ​​the agency said.

The Georgian Department of Labor is also forecasting a benefit gap due to the need to seek assistance again.

“If you have reached the end of the benefit year, you must submit a new application the day AFTER the end of the benefit year,” the agency said in a tweet.

The Agency recommended that workers continue to request a payment while the application is being processed and stated that all eligible payments will be issued once the new application has been verified.

This can take up to 14 days or more for some workers, the Georgia Labor Office said.

In addition, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission this week reported technology issues associated with the anniversary.

“The OESC team continues to work on resolving reported filing issues related to end-of-year benefit dates,” the agency said in a tweet on Thursday.

However, some states appear to have taken proactive measures to prevent hiccups for workers, Stettner said.

The New Jersey Department of Labor, for example, said Thursday that it was the only state to have automated the benefit year review process. The agency has automatically filed up to 275,000 unemployment claims so far, he said.

States have had to deal with a year of historically high unemployment claims, while taking steps to combat unemployment fraud in international crime rings, as well as implementing new federal programs.

The issue of benefit year is another complication in an already stressed system, Evermore said.

“Anything that adds to the workload of state agencies will generally make it harder for them to provide applicants with all the things they would like – there is no weakness in the system to absorb the extra work,” she said. .

Several layers of unemployment programs created during the pandemic added a layer of confusion for workers.

For example, not all people will necessarily have to claim benefits again. This is likely to be the case for the self-employed and other workers in the federal pandemic unemployment assistance program who have not worked in the past year, Stettner said.

In addition to the benefit gap, workers’ supporters are concerned that states are not applying new rules correctly to limit a significant reduction in weekly benefits.

The $ 900 billion Covid law passed in December introduced a protection measure to limit the reduction of benefits to less than $ 25 a week. This applies to people who found little work during the pandemic and would otherwise have qualified for a much lower state benefit based on that work history.

However, this solution cannot be applied uniformly, Stettner said.