Initial backlog of pandemic-caused unemployment claims has been cleared, state says
An initial backlog of unemployment claims during the COVID-19 pandemic has been cleared, the Washington state Employment Security Department said Monday.
“More than 81,500 individuals who had applied by mid-June and not received payment now have resolution on their claims,” ESD Commissioner Suzi LeVine said in a press release. “While clearing this initial backlog represents significant progress, and more than 900,000 individuals have received benefits since the crisis began, we know we still have a lot more work to do and a lot of trust to be regained as we move into the next phase of our response.”
The cleared backlog involved people who applied for unemployment between March 8 and June 18 and had not gotten any payments.
“There are still those who have applied since mid-June or had issues set on their weekly claims and need resolution,” LeVine said.
At a press conference Monday she said about 30,000 people were “waiting on ESD to take action on their claims,” as of July 25, and that that number has been reduced since.
Describing the sharp uptick in claims in response to the pandemic, the agency’s press release said “initial claims filed in Washington increased by over 800% in a single week and, following the launch of the additional benefits under the federal CARES Act, the state saw the single largest week of claims in history – with nearly 1.5 million initial claims filed. For context, the week ending March 7 — before the crisis hit — saw only 6,584 initial claims filed.”
And in May a fraud ring stole hundreds of millions by filing false claims.
“While ESD put a swift stop to the attack, preventing hundreds of millions in additional fraudulent payments, the added scrutiny and identity verification measures impacted the speed at which the department could work through the backlog of claims from earlier in the crisis,” the agency said in its press release Monday.
“This crisis has been unpredictable from the start, with many twists and challenges,” LeVine said in the statement. “While we don’t know what’s in store next, we do know that economic and employment uncertainty will continue for the near future. Our role at the Employment Security Department is to provide a counterbalance to the uncertainty – through accessible unemployment benefits, re-employment services and support for businesses so they may retain a skilled workforce.”
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Initial backlog of pandemic-caused unemployment claims has been cleared, state says."
