PENNSYLVANIA — The Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry (L&I) has released a status report on the Unemployment Compensation (UC) system and its efforts to support workers and employers facing economic challenges. L&I states that it is focused on resolving all pandemic-era UC claims by August and is actively working towards improving the UC system for the future. L&I Secretary, Nancy A. Walker, highlighted their proactive planning and commitment to assisting businesses affected by the I-95 collapse.
“We are staffing up our UC Service Centers, answering emails within 24 hours and staying on track to meet our goal of resolving all pandemic-era UC claims in August. The work to improve the UC system will never be done, but we have made real progress in just six months to move beyond the management of a crisis and into proactive planning for the future,” said Walker. “Our Rapid Response team engaged immediately with the business community affected by the I-95 collapse, and we will remain available to assist workers and employers for as long as necessary.”
Unemployment Claims: Resolving Backlogs, Processing New Claims, and Fighting Fraud
The Department stated that its top priority is a 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. The outstanding backlog of unresolved pandemic claims totaled 10,017 at the end of May 2023 – down more than 2,800 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. In some cases, claimants filed a claim but never filed a weekly certification. In others, a final determination of ineligibility for UC benefits is pending while the Department verifies that the claimant received benefits through the temporary federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
Separately, the Department stated that it continues to process new claims. In May 2023, L&I received 27,078 claims in its regular workload and distributed UC benefits totaling $122,927,760 to 63,821 eligible claimants.
L&I is also working aggressively to resolve the unprecedented number of fraud reports filed during the pandemic period of high unemployment. At the end of May, the number of outstanding fraud reports totaled 17,493 – down from 34,000 at the start of the Shapiro Administration in January.
In May, L&I served 52,358 individuals who called the UC helpline at 888-313-7284; 4,611 individuals through the UC chat service; and 15,861 individuals through email. UC staff are now 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 3,684 individuals in May for a total of 43,662 since the program’s launch in May 2022.
In June, L&I upgraded the online system feature that helps UC claimants track the status of their claims. Claimants will now see a panel reminding them of the requirement to register for employment-search services through PA CareerLink® within 30 days after filing a claim – a step in the process required by Pennsylvania’s UC Law that claimants occasionally misunderstand, which can affect eligibility for benefits. Once a claimant registers for employment-search services, they don’t have to do it again.
L&I is also 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.
The Rapid Response Services Team provides businesses with a customizable approach to their specific business needs as challenges occur, which can include layoff aversion, coordination of business closure to maximize public and private resources, assisting with the re-employment of impacted workers, and other transitional services.
For the month of May, L&I provided Rapid Response Services to 13 employers and 1,102 workers. Since the start of the year, L&I’s Rapid Response Services team has supported 142 employers and 7,472 workers.
L&I invites business owners experiencing challenges after the collapse of an overpass on I-95 in Philadelphia to contact the Department for Rapid Response assistance by emailing RA-LI-BWPO-Rapid@pa.gov or calling 866-858-2753. Workers affected by the I-95 incident can find support through the PA CareerLink®network, which includes multiple locations in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.
For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, please visit the website.
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