Name: Many laid-off workers still not getting benefits; Virginia Employment Commission says it is working through massive surge in filings
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Many laid-off workers still not getting benefits; Virginia Employment Commission says it is working through massive surge in filings

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Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisMany laid-off workers still not getting benefits; Virginia Employment Commission says it is working through massive surge in filingsShare thisUnemployment claim form on an office table.Empty businesses reflect the severity of employment disruption in Richmond and statewide. In the 13 weeks since mid-March, the Virginia Employment Commission has received nearly 850,000 initial jobless claims.Marcia Finsterwald, a pet sitter and dog walker who lives in Henrico County, said she saw about 75% of her income disappear when the coronavirus pandemic hit Virginia.“I either take care of pets or walk pets when people are at work during the day, or when they are out of town,” Finsterwald said, adding that she has been doing the job for about 10 years. Spring break is normally a big time of year for her, but not this year.Finsterwald, owner of Marcia’s Pet Patrol, said she applied for unemployment benefits under an expanded federal program that allows self-employed people, independent contractors or “gig” workers who were not eligible for benefits before the pandemic to apply for benefits now.Yet Finsterwald said she still has not received any payments since applying in March. She said she entered her bank account information when she applied online for benefits with the Virginia Employment Commission.“I keep checking and it has not gone in,” she said. “Maybe something went wrong. I don’t know how to find out.”Officials with the Virginia Employment Commission said Thursday that the agency is working hard to respond to a massive, unprecedented increase in applications for unemployment benefits as businesses and self-employed people all over the state have been forced to shut down operations or reduce their hours.About 822,300 initial unemployment claims have been filed since March 15. That nearly equals all of the initial claims for unemployment benefits filed from 2015 until mid-March 2020. The number of jobless claims has jumped from about 11,000 per month in 2019, during a period of record-low unemployment, to more than 300,000 per month since mid-March.About 75% of these claims have been approved and have received payment, the VEC said, with more than $3.8 billion in payments distributed to people who have lost wages during the pandemic.However, about 80,000 claims remain under adjudication, a review process by VEC hearing officers to determine if those claims are valid and meet eligibility for benefits. That backlog of administrative reviews is up from 59,000 reviews that were conducted for all of 2019.The VEC’s call center offices have been overwhelmed with phone calls, and its website has been inundated with filings. In response, the VEC has been redeploying employees, hiring new call center workers and contracting with third-party providers to take calls.The agency said its number of employees working on unemployment claims has increased from 432 last year to 640 now. The number of call center staff stands now at 379, up from 82 last year, with more expected to be hired.But still, Virginians, like Finsterwald, complain that they have not received any benefits — and can’t get in touch with anyone from the VEC to find out why.Laid-off workers calling the state’s toll-free number to set up claims either can’t get through or wait for hours on hold — or sometimes they get disconnected.The online reporting system, which the state tells applicants that they should use to file their claims, also is showing stress.“It is frustrating,” said Judi Woodard, a Bon Air resident who said she was laid off in March from her job as an administrative assistant for a financial services firm.Woodard said she applied for unemployment and got two weeks of benefits, but then the payments stopped coming. She said she re-applied for a claim, but nothing has arrived.“We haven’t been able to get in touch with anyone,” said Crenshaw, whose husband is working at home. “We have been calling and emailing.”VEC officials could not say Thursday the total number of claims that have been denied.However, officials said that “thousands” of claims are under review because the applicants for benefits refused an offer to return to work.It wasn’t clear how many of those refusals to return to work came from people who are concerned about contracting the coronavirus. VEC officials said in cases involving health issues, the agency will need to make a ruling to determine if benefit payments can continue.People who refuse to return to work because of health concerns “are encouraged to obtain a doctor’s note and provide it to the VEC hearing officer,” the agency said. “This will take time.”Childcare is a similar issue, with some applicants asking whether they must accept an offer to return to work if their childcare provider is no longer open. Childcare generally is considered the responsibility of the employee, but if their normal, customary childcare is closed, the agency will take that into consideration, VEC officials said.VEC officials also said Thursday that the agency has recently corrected the percentage of Hispanic people in Virginia who are collecting unemployment benefits. The percentage, which had been reported as about 1%, has now been corrected to about 10%. Officials said the agency is investigating why the reporting error happened.***For the filing week that ended June 6, the number of seasonally unadjusted initial unemployment claims in Virginia was 29,231. That was down 6.8%, or by 2,148 claims from the previous week.Continued claims totaled 396,056, which was down 2,355 from the previous week. But 376,977 higher than the 19,079 continued claims from the comparable week in 2019.The Richmond region — Richmond and the counties of Henrico, Chesterfield and Hanover — had 3,458 initial claims, a week-over-week decline of 7.6%.In the past 11 weeks, the total number of claims in the region has soared to more than 100,900.In the U.S., about 1.5 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, marking the 10th straight weekly decline in applications for jobless aid since they peaked in mid-March when the coronavirus hit hard.***Multiple possible reasons were given by VEC officials Thursday as to why a person who applies for benefits might be denied or delayed, or if the agency needs to do an additional review before a claim is approved.The top reasons for a denial or delay in benefits are:(804) 775-8123Unemployment claim form on an office table.Empty businesses reflect the severity of employment disruption in Richmond and statewide. In the 13 weeks since mid-March, the Virginia Employment Commission has received nearly 850,000 initial jobless claims.{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

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Many laid-off workers still not getting benefits; Virginia Employment Commission says it is working through massive surge in filings

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