Backlog of WA unemployment claims shrinks, but wait for payment might linger into late July for some
One week after deploying members of the National Guard to help, the state’s Employment Security Department still faces the task of sorting fraudulent claims from legitimate ones.
State ESD Commissioner Suzi LeVine told reporters Thursday the department did turn a corner last week, resolving another 10,000 claims caught in the logjam starting May 15 when stricter ID vetting was put in place amid a flood of fraudulent claims, which LeVine said has now grown to nearly 40 states.
She estimates June 30 as the first target date to get through claims that were held up on or around May 15, and the department has broadened its Operation 100 Percent push to get claimants out of adjudication, to include “all those who have not been paid, since the crisis began, and who ESD is working with to resolve issues on their claim.”
While those who’ve been waiting the longest could see resolution on or before July 6, “Our target is to resolve the remaining claims of that 81,000 (those waiting as of June 15) ... to have those resolved no later than July 31.”
She added that members of the Guard “were able to resolve 1,408 ID verification. In just two days.”
“We really have seen big shift in our momentum,” LeVine said.
The goal eventually is to get the average wait time for claims with issues down from about six-and-a-half weeks to four.
Pre-pandemic, it was about three weeks, LeVine noted Thursday.
By the numbers
The department on Thursday reported there were 29,612 initial regular unemployment claims (up 2 percent from the previous week) and 718,615 total claims for all unemployment benefit categories, up 3.3% from the previous week.
For Pierce County, initial regular claims filed increased from 3,582 to 3,702, up 3 percent from the previous week..
In contrast, King County saw its initial regular claims decrease from 8,753 to 8,752 last week.
Statewide, 1,191,821 individuals have filed for unemployment since March 7, the start of job losses as a result of the pandemic, according to state regional economist Jim Vleming with ESD.
Of that, 875,979 individuals who have filed an initial claim have been paid.
Initial claims are still up at 450 percent above last year’s weekly new claims applications, ESD noted in its weekly update.
In an update during the regular COVID-19 Business Info Series virtual roundtable for area businesses Wednesday, Steve Ruggles, a program manager for ESD, said that the department still faced about 300,000 messages in its system waiting for responses but acknowledged that number also contained duplicate messages.
He also noted the department would be limiting the number of inbound calls through July 6 to concentrate on its backlog.
Actions to spur faster turnaround
A motion also has been filed with the state Supreme Court by lawyers suing ESD over the delays to compel the agency to promptly pay benefits, calling for immediate court intervention.
While LeVine said she would not speak to any pending litigation, she defended the work of her team.
“They are burning the candle at every end ... My agency is working to the bone on this,” she said.
Peach McDouall, who was furloughed from her job with Tacoma Public Library on May 4, is among the long list of those still waiting. She said managers at the library system have tried helping her cut through the red tape to no avail.
“I have seven checks labeled ‘pending’ for adjudication, over a month since uploading scans of my ID on May 16,” she texted The News Tribune on Thursday in response to questions.
Tami Jackson, a former Clover Park School District substitute teacher who shared her story with The News Tribune in early June, said that what eventually worked for her was a deluge of emails she sent to ESD workers using “every email address I could find ... someone took pity and connected me to a fraud investigator.”
She eventually got her first check this month, she told The News Tribune via email in response to questions.
“It’s such a relief. I’m no longer crying every day when I wake up,” she wrote.
“I’m just super eager to get some kind of work to not need to rely on the government.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 3:18 PM.
