PENNSYLVANIA — The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) announced that it has resolved more than 26,000 pandemic-era Unemployment Compensation (UC) fraud reports in the first six months of the Shapiro Administration. In addition to the record-breaking spike in UC claims over the past three years, L&I also received an unprecedented number of fraud reports. Since the start of the Shapiro Administration in January, L&I has resolved more than three-quarters of the roughly 34,000 fraud reports that remained. At the end of June, the number of outstanding fraud reports totaled 7,863.
“When fraudsters targeted UC systems nationwide, they may have expected easy money. But this Department fought back by implementing new security measures and working with our partners in law enforcement to hold fraudsters accountable” L&I Secretary Nancy A. Walker said. “Every report of suspected fraud deserves to be investigated, and that’s what we’ll do until this workload is resolved.”
The Department also continues to resolve the pandemic backlog of claims and has resolved more than 8,000 pandemic claims since April.
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
The Department’s top priority is resolution of the pandemic backlog of claims, which includes any unresolved claims filed between March 2020 and November 2021. During this period of high unemployment, the Department received 3.7 million regular UC claims and 3.4 million Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims (this was a temporary, federal program that expired in September 2021). The outstanding backlog of unresolved pandemic claims totaled 4,659 at the end of June 2023 – down more than 8,000 since April.
There are no claims in the pandemic backlog that are waiting for an initial review; rather, each of these claims is pending for reasons of extenuating circumstance. For example, many of these claims lack required information for eligibility determination from the claimant, employer or both and can be resolved only through the manual process of collecting the needed information.
Separately, the Department continues to process new claims. In June 2023, L&I received 34,705 claims in its regular workload and distributed UC benefits totaling $130,963,541 to 82,550 eligible claimants.
In June, L&I served:
- 61,461 individuals through the UC helpline at 888-313-7284;
- 9,238 individuals through the UC chat service;
- 16,435 individuals through email.
Since May, UC staff have been answering emails in real time – within 24 hours.
Through the Department’s UC Connect program offering in-person customer service at Pennsylvania CareerLink® locations, L&I served 3,866 individuals in June for a total of 47,528 since the program’s launch in May 2022.
Recently, the work to improve customer service for UC claimants took a big step forward. In June, L&I implemented an abbreviated process to reopen a claim which reduced the process from about one hour to only 5-15 minutes. Previously, the reopen process progressed in the same way as the initial claim process. Now, if claimants don’t have changes to any of their previously provided information, they can skip ahead directly to the Employment History section.
L&I is reminding UC claimants of their responsibility to file weekly benefit certifications online or by using the department’s touch tone telephone service, called PAT, at 888-255-4728 (en Español 877-888-8104).
RAPID RESPONSE SERVICES
Rapid Response Services are available for businesses and workers in the event of job dislocation caused by a natural disaster, economic transition, planned layoff or closure through the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN). Rapid Response Services are available to employers and employees at no cost.
For the month of June 2023, L&I provided Rapid Response Services to 21 employers and 1,483 workers – including employees of the Homer City Generating Station in Indiana County that announced its closure over the summer would affect 129 workers.
“Even when the unemployment rate is low and jobs are plentiful, companies still close and layoffs unfortunately still happen. Workers caught in the middle deserve support so they can bounce back, and that’s what L&I’s Rapid Response team is so good at providing,” Walker said. “The efforts to support workers at the Homer City Generating Station are just one example of this important service, but every response is critical to the workers, families and communities that might otherwise be upended by an unexpected closure. We want Pennsylvanians to know we’re here to help.”
After the company’s announcement of its pending closure, L&I’s Rapid Response team met with representatives of the company to gather information about the layoffs and form a plan to help the affected workers. The team scheduled multiple informational meetings to share information with workers – most of whom are members of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 459 – about reemployment services, health insurance options, UC, Trade Adjustment Assistance and other supportive services.
Before the final layoffs are made, the Rapid Response team will provide pre-layoff services including PA CareerLink® registrations, targeted job fairs, and UC assistance.
Since the start of the year, L&I’s Rapid Response Services team has supported 163 employers and 8,955 workers.
L&I is inviting business owners experiencing economic challenges to contact the Department for Rapid Response assistance by emailing RA-LI-BWPO-Rapid@pa.gov or calling 866-858-2753. Workers can find additional support through the PA CareerLink® network.
For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, please visit the website.
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