Employees are one year in unemployment benefits. It causes problems

It has been about a year since millions of Americans filed for unemployment benefits in the early days of the Covid pandemic.

That anniversary seems to pose administrative problems in some states. They can result in deferred benefits or a lower than expected amount of aid.

“I think it’s a catch that catches certain people,” said Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation.

Claims for unemployment benefits started ticking in the week of March 14, 2020, as the coronavirus sent shock waves through the job market.

According to data from the Labor Department, more than 24 million people applied for benefits the following month. Millions more registrations in the weeks that follow.

Such individuals are reaching the end of their “benefit year”.

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Those seeking benefits after this point – which is a year since applying for help – usually receive an assessment from the state employment offices.

States re-examine an employee’s recent earning history to determine whether they are still eligible for benefits.

A person who has not found work during the benefit year is usually not eligible for further support. That could be true for a large group of workers – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about a quarter of the unemployed had been out of work for at least a year in March.

Someone who found a job but had a significant job gap would generally qualify for a smaller weekly allowance. (They may also not qualify depending on the state and total earnings.)

Meanwhile, the American Rescue Plan expanded unemployment benefits for workers through Labor Day.

These two competing forces seem to be causing some problems for states and, in some cases, delaying benefits for workers.

However, according to Michele Evermore, a senior unemployment insurance policy advisor at the United States Department of Labor, the issues vary by state and according to the specific program that pays benefits at the end of the benefit year.

“As we’ve discussed over the past year, every administrative hurdle becomes a challenge for plaintiffs, and there is no hurdle every employee can overcome,” said Evermore in an email.

For example, the California Employment Development Department informed workers on Thursday that most should reapply for help when they reach the end of their benefit year.

Those claims can take up to three weeks to process, the agency said.

Twenty-one days is the standard barometer for “timely” payment of unemployment benefits. But that also means that some people have no income for a few weeks.

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

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

The Georgia Department of Labor also predicts a shortage of benefits due to the need to ask for help again.

“When you reach the end of your benefit year, you must submit a new application the day AFTER your benefit year ends,” the agency said in a tweet.

The agency advised employees to continue to request payment while the claim is being processed, and said all eligible payments will be made once the new claim is vetted.

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

In addition, the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission reported technology issues related to the anniversary this week.

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

However, some states seem to have taken proactive measures to prevent hiccups for employees, Stettner said.

For example, the New Jersey Labor Department claimed on Thursday that it was the only state to have automated the benefit year review process. The agency has automatically filed about 275,000 unemployment claims so far.

States have faced a year of historically high unemployment claims as they took steps to combat unemployment fraud by international criminal circles and implement new federal programs.

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

“Anything that adds to the workload of government agencies will make it more difficult for them in general to provide all the things to plaintiffs they would like – there is no leeway in the system to absorb additional work,” she said.

Multiple layers of unemployment programs created during the pandemic have created a layer of confusion among workers.

For example, not all people necessarily have to apply for benefits again. That’s likely the case for self-employed workers and other workers in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program who have not worked in the past year, Stettner said.

Aside from a gap in benefits, workers’ advocates are concerned that states are not properly applying the new rules designed to limit a large reduction in weekly benefits.

The $ 900 billion Covid relationship law passed in December introduced a precautionary measure designed to limit a benefit cut to less than $ 25 a week. This applies to people who found little work during the pandemic and who would otherwise qualify for a much lower government benefit on the basis of their employment history.

However, that solution may not be uniformly applied, Stettner said.