WEBVTT - Delays in Unemployment Benefits Causing Problems for Some Workers

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<v Speaker 1>It's Tuesday, jo I'm Oscar and Mirrors from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is Reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>The reopening of America has not been going so well

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<v Speaker 1>just yet. While some gains have been made, a resurgence

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<v Speaker 1>of cases and delays and unemployment benefits have continued to

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<v Speaker 1>push people to the edge. There are issues with fraud

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<v Speaker 1>and user confusion, long waits to process jobless applications, and

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<v Speaker 1>outdated computer systems used by unemployment offices. Eli Rosenberg, work

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<v Speaker 1>and labor reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for more.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining us, Eli, Thanks so much for having

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<v Speaker 1>me as we continue to make our way through the

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<v Speaker 1>coronavirus pandemic. One lifeline that a lot of people have

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<v Speaker 1>had has been unemployment benefits. Obviously, Congress past a bunch

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<v Speaker 1>of things to help make that a little more robust.

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<v Speaker 1>People are getting an extra six hundred dollars for their payments,

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<v Speaker 1>but there's a lot of other people who have just

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<v Speaker 1>been kind of left in the lurch with all of this.

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<v Speaker 1>There's been huge delay. People have gone by weeks and

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<v Speaker 1>months without getting payments or even a callback sometimes from

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<v Speaker 1>their local unemployment offices. It's been a pretty hard time

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<v Speaker 1>for a lot of people. ELI tell us a little

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<v Speaker 1>bit about what's going on with unemployment. So many of

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<v Speaker 1>us know by now that just flood of people out

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<v Speaker 1>there have lost their work in the last couple of

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<v Speaker 1>months because of pandemic, and that sent a ton of

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<v Speaker 1>people applying for unemployment insurance from their state agencies. You

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<v Speaker 1>have more than somewhere in the range of fifty million

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<v Speaker 1>people apply for unemployment insurance at some point during this crisis,

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<v Speaker 1>and currently about eighteen million people continuing receiving benefits. So

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<v Speaker 1>that flood of applicants has created a huge amount of

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<v Speaker 1>challenges for these state agencies that are not used to

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<v Speaker 1>that level of applications or really anything close to that,

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<v Speaker 1>And for a lot of workers out there, this has

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<v Speaker 1>been issue since the beginning of the pandemic. There's been

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<v Speaker 1>some pretty significant delays that states have been slowly working

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<v Speaker 1>through and getting better at. But as we reported today,

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<v Speaker 1>there's still some folks out there who've been waiting a month,

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<v Speaker 1>two months or longer to get their unemployment better fits

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<v Speaker 1>and struggling to just take care of their basic needs

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<v Speaker 1>and bills in the meantime. Yeah, and unfortunately you know,

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<v Speaker 1>we are reopening a lot of the states, but there's

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<v Speaker 1>surging cases, so that's a problem there. And then, as

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<v Speaker 1>you noted in your article, there's tens of thousands of

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<v Speaker 1>workers at Levi's, Wells Fargo, and United Airlines who learned

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<v Speaker 1>that they could be getting furloughed or laid off in

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<v Speaker 1>the coming months. So this whole thing is not over yet.

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<v Speaker 1>With that respect, one thing I noted in your article.

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<v Speaker 1>You mentioned that there's a lot of issues with fraud

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<v Speaker 1>and user confusion over the new rules and filing processes.

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<v Speaker 1>This has helped bog down the whole process. What kind

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<v Speaker 1>of fraud and user confusion are we looking at states

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<v Speaker 1>around the country. I've been dealing with a level of

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<v Speaker 1>fraud in terms of applications submitted for these unemployment claims.

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<v Speaker 1>I think that's something that typically happens in general, and

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<v Speaker 1>now with the flood of applicants, perhaps have been done

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<v Speaker 1>a slightly higher level than normal. So the normal work

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<v Speaker 1>to kind of verify that applicants are who they say

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<v Speaker 1>they are, that their personal information, their social security information

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<v Speaker 1>hasn't been compromised. It is just so much harder because

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<v Speaker 1>there's so many more of them out there. So that's

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<v Speaker 1>just another issue which adds to the complicating factors of

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<v Speaker 1>getting these applications through the system that you have to

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<v Speaker 1>verify that they're all legitimate. So we've heard some reports

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<v Speaker 1>about people getting their claims flag for fraud even though

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<v Speaker 1>they're legitimate claims. Is that assign of the system working

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<v Speaker 1>legitimately just sort of normal speed bumps on the road

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<v Speaker 1>to getting your insurance process, probably, but just with the

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<v Speaker 1>level of applications we're seeing out there, it's something that

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<v Speaker 1>makes a process even slower than it already is for

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<v Speaker 1>some people. The backlog is pretty bad. One of the

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<v Speaker 1>stats you had in the article. By the end of May,

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<v Speaker 1>about eighteen point eight million out of thirty three million

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<v Speaker 1>claims just about had been paid out nationwide, So there's

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<v Speaker 1>still a lot of people that were still waiting to

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<v Speaker 1>get through the process. One question I had about that,

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<v Speaker 1>do there's people that you know are waiting, let's say

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<v Speaker 1>they're weeks or maybe even a month into the process.

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<v Speaker 1>Do they get paid what they should have gotten paid

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<v Speaker 1>from when they first applied, or do they just get

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<v Speaker 1>paid you know, the last two weeks. How does that work?

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<v Speaker 1>We're hearing some different things. One thing that makes this

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<v Speaker 1>kind of tricky to track is that the federal government

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<v Speaker 1>at least doesn't track or released statistics about sort of

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<v Speaker 1>how many claims of getting the country. But like you said,

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<v Speaker 1>large number eighteen million out of about thirty three million

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<v Speaker 1>had been processed, leaving more than twelve million claims that

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<v Speaker 1>we're still needing processing at the end of May. So

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<v Speaker 1>for some folks those delays are pretty significant. What about

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<v Speaker 1>denied claims? There was a section you had about Oklahoma

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<v Speaker 1>having approved two thirty five thousand out of about five

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<v Speaker 1>hundred and ninety thousand claims, but they had a big

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<v Speaker 1>number three hundred and fifty thousand claims that they denied.

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<v Speaker 1>How is that working out? We weren't able to get

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<v Speaker 1>the model of that for this story. The state of

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<v Speaker 1>Oklahoma said that there's a new type of unemployment insurance

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<v Speaker 1>available to self employed workers and gig workers, and to

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<v Speaker 1>get that insurance, they have to first apply for regular

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<v Speaker 1>unemployment insurance, get denied, and then apply for the second

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<v Speaker 1>type of insurance that they're eligible for. So they were

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<v Speaker 1>saying that a large number of those claims are due

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<v Speaker 1>to people having to get denied to apply to the

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<v Speaker 1>PUA insurance. What it's called for gig workers, but only

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<v Speaker 1>forty seven thousand people I think applied to the PUA

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<v Speaker 1>in Oklahoma, so that's only about a seventh out of

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<v Speaker 1>that three. So again, just trying to figure out what's

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<v Speaker 1>happening with people out there, how long they're waiting, whether

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<v Speaker 1>they're getting their benefits back, and just to kind of

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<v Speaker 1>piggyback on the question you asked before, we've heard all

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<v Speaker 1>sorts of different things. We've heard some people waiting six weeks,

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<v Speaker 1>eight weeks and then kindly getting on the lump sumb

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<v Speaker 1>for some people waiting a long time and only getting

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<v Speaker 1>the past couple of weeks. We're not getting all of

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<v Speaker 1>the employment insurance if they work multiple jobs that they

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<v Speaker 1>think they're owed, but also being so sort of frustrated

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<v Speaker 1>with the system at that process that they're happy to

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<v Speaker 1>just be getting some money after not getting any. So

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<v Speaker 1>it's not exactly clear whether or not people are getting

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<v Speaker 1>paid out for all those benefits they missed. When they

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<v Speaker 1>do get paid out, it's just such an unfortunate thing

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<v Speaker 1>when so many people need the help. No one knew

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<v Speaker 1>that the coronavirus pandemic was and it hit so hard,

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<v Speaker 1>but we knew that this crush of job losses was

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<v Speaker 1>going to hit. So that's kind of a tough thing

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<v Speaker 1>to square away. And one thing that we always hear

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<v Speaker 1>about is just kind of the outdated systems. I know,

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<v Speaker 1>the computers are a big thing. Oklahoma just going on

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<v Speaker 1>with them. I think they said they have an old

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<v Speaker 1>mainframe computer from night and they have like full time

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<v Speaker 1>staff just dedicated to making sure that thing doesn't crap out. So,

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, these are just all the difficulties that these

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<v Speaker 1>unemployment officers are dealing with, as you mentioned too, while

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<v Speaker 1>they're just getting crushed with more and more claims. We

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<v Speaker 1>sort of say that it's a confluence of crises right

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<v Speaker 1>in the article, and one of those is the unprecedent

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<v Speaker 1>ended volume claim. But one of those is the years

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<v Speaker 1>of neglect and lack of funding and budgets being paired

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<v Speaker 1>down in these state unemployment agencies. Pretty crazy right now,

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<v Speaker 1>Did any office, state or private will be using a

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<v Speaker 1>mainframe computer from the ninth teen seventies. One thing that

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<v Speaker 1>did make it into the story was we were talking

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<v Speaker 1>to the agency and the state of Oregon that deals

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<v Speaker 1>with unemployment insurance, and they too said that the computer

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<v Speaker 1>they relied on was fifty years old, so I asked

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<v Speaker 1>him if that menu it was from nineteen seventy. They

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<v Speaker 1>didn't have an exact date, but apparently it might even

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<v Speaker 1>be even older than Oklahoma's main frame. So yeah, a

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<v Speaker 1>system that's not been functioning well or set up to

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<v Speaker 1>succeed now being really challenged in a way that it's

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<v Speaker 1>not prepared for. Eli Rosenberg, work and labor reporter at

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<v Speaker 1>the Washington Post, Thank you very much for joining us.

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<v Speaker 1>Thank you. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this has been reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>Don't forget after today's big news stories. You can check

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<v Speaker 1>me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday.

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