Be patient, don’t send multiple emails and other tips from Pa. unemployment compensation official

Labor Dept. alerts workers they can't file new claims Tuesday night because of system maintenance. Workers can still certify

Be patient; don't send multiple emails; learn about the process; make sure all your information is correct. Those are just some of the tips that Susan Dickinson, director of the state Labor & Industry unemployment compensation benefits policy, offers for people still struggling to resolve issues with their UC claims..

With the growing roster of Pennsylvania counties reopening under the state’s color-coded plan, workers who were laid off or furloughed amid the coronavirus pandemic are likely to gradually return to work.

In fact, officials from the state Department of Labor & Industry last week noted that claims numbers had indeed dipped for the first time since the pandemic shutdown.

But that hasn’t stemmed the tide of complaints lodged to PennLive by readers who are angry or frustrated at best, and in some cases, desperate to get benefits to see them through what has become a very rough financial patch for thousands.

In an effort to address their concerns, PennLive, which has been regularly updating the unemployment situation across the state, submitted about a dozen of those emails to L&I .

This week, Susan Dickinson, the director of L&I ‘s unemployment compensation benefits policy, addressed some of the concerns expressed in those emails.

For starters, Dickinson said that too often a simple misunderstanding by an applicant can slow down the process. The instinct for someone with an issue might be to try and call or email, but she said that most of the time a phone call or email was unnecessary, but rather what is most often needed is further scrutiny of the claims process to move it along faster for them.

“Understanding unemployment first is key to alleviating some of the fears and reservations that people have,” Dickinson said. “The materials we send out, make sure you go through them early and our website is a wealth of information, not just the process of filing, but also eligibility.”

Since March 15, Pennsylvanian has logged 2.1 million cases of unemployment compensation. Prior to that date, the department was working on average with 40,000 cases. The unprecedented spike in claims on the 40-year-old system has at times overwhelmed the process.

This week the system began to see a leveling out of sorts.

In the week ending May 10, the Pennsylvania unemployment compensation office received 65,000 new claims for benefits. That’s a marked decrease from what has been a steady intake that at times exceeded 350,000 claims a week since March 15, when coronavirus mitigation efforts essentially shut down the state’s economy.

While the waiting may seem interminable for those waiting to resolve issues with their claims process, Dickinson said it’s just a matter of time.

Once an individual has submitted a claim or inquired regarding an issue with their claim, their case lands in a queue, and it’s just a matter of time before it is resolved and they begin to receive benefits.

“It’s just a matter of supply and demand,” Dickinson said. “We have so many claims. Our staff has expanded but we are still nowhere where we would love to be to be able to handle everything the day it comes in.”

The department has added on more than 900 staff members, which include employees from other offices as well as reactivating retirees to meet the unprecedented surge in benefit claims.

Dickinson said that if an applicant must absolutely speak to a representative, they are better off calling late in the week, and not in the early part. The new hires will next week begin to answer emails and the chat line, she said.

As far as email: Dickinson said there is no need for someone to send multiple emails. The first email “secures their place in line.”

“Sending multiple emails won’t help speed up your claim,” she said. “Just sending one email gets that person in line.”

Multiple emails can slow down the process as representatives have to go through every single one of them; if a case already exist in the queue the additional emails serve little purpose.

The unemployment office tracker indicates that the wait for email response is 46 days; but that figure reflects the date of the oldest emails in the system.

“That’s the oldest email in the system, not the wait necessarily,” Dickinson said.

Dickinson expressed confidence in the unemployment office staff.

“These are people who know unemployment,” she said. “They are the experts.”

A substantial number of inquiries concern the personal identification number - or PIN. Dickinson said the system has no problems with the PIN aspect of the process. Often, she said, it’s just a matter of incorrect information on the application.

She does recommend that applicants who have waited three weeks or more for a PIN re-submit another requests. Typically the problems are resolved in two weeks.

Dickinson said it was impossible to address each one of the reader emails submitted as the claims process is dictated by particular and specific circumstances in a person’s claim.

“Without being able to see the claim, it’s impossible to know what is going on,” she said.

Dickinson again stressed that the unemployment compensation system had no hidden backlogs, but that there are queues for specific issues.

“It takes time to resolve those issues,” she said. “Even before the pandemic...That's part of the regular process but with the pandemic it is, of course, a lot of volume.”

In addition to the traditional unemployment, the state is also processing the benefits rolled out amid the pandemic: the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which covers benefits for self-employed workers, independent contractors and gig workers; and ​Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which provides up to 13 weeks of additional unemployment benefits to individuals who previously exhausted those benefits.

As of Thursday afternoon, 37 of the state’s 67 counties are in the yellow re-opening phase. Another 12 counties, including some in central Pennsylvania, are headed there at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

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