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Vermont’s Department of Labor says that it cleared tens of thousands of backlogged unemployment insurance claims over the weekend. The state is also making good on its promise Monday to send checks of $1,200 to the remaining 8,384 Vermonters who still haven’t been able to resolve problems with their claims.
As of Sunday, the state had processed nearly 32,000 claims that had been backlogged. Those claimants will now be able to file a weekly claim and start collecting their benefits through the program, according to a Department of Labor press release Sunday evening.
But there were still 8,384 people whose claims problems were not fixed over the weekend. Gov. Phil Scott directed the treasurer’s office to send $1,200 checks to those people, covering two weeks’ worth of federal benefits that would have started the week of March 29.
Scott had set a Saturday night deadline for the DOL to get through the backlog of tens of thousands of claims. Eighty thousand people have filed for unemployment insurance since Scott closed non-essential businesses in late March to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Last week, many thousands still hadn’t been able to get through on the online or phone system.
In previous recessions, the typical number of claimants has been between 3,000 and 4,000. Over the past few weeks, 30,000 to 40,000 Vermonters have filed claims.
Both Scott and DOL Interim Commissioner Michael Harrington have apologized for the delays. Harrington said Friday that dozens of new call center workers and increased involvement by an outside vendor would speed things up.
The checks “serve as an initial installment” for claimants, the department said in a press release. People who receive them likely are owed more under the program, and they will eventually receive the full amount over the coming weeks, the DOL said.
State labor officials will also take steps to review the expedited payments after they are made.
In a statement, the DOL said that the federal regulations governing the unemployment insurance program, which is funded both by the state and the federal governments, was a barrier to quickly resolving claims problems. Harrington has also blamed chronic problems with the DOL’s decades-old claims processing mainframe computer system.
“The lack of federal flexibility has exacerbated an already complicated and cumbersome program,” the department said in a statement. “While the State is eligible for additional federal unemployment benefits for qualified Vermonters, the ability to get these benefits to claimants in a timely manner was not possible under the immense requirements set by the federal government.”
Harrington said Friday the state is adding 50 people from other state agencies to handle calls, while Maximus, the Virginia-based vendor, is bringing on 50 new agents and will have 20 people on standby. With these new workers, the state will have more than 150 people answering phones, and there will be more than 200 in total working on claims, the DOL said.
The governor’s Saturday deadline did not apply to new claims arriving through the federal government’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which is designed for first-time filers who are self-employed or independent contractors. Harrington has said the department will launch that separate program by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, a technical problem interrupted the automated phone line for filing weekly claims for part of the weekend.
Some Vermonters who tried to call into the phone line Sunday morning got an error message, according to the department. Some calls to the system were met with silence.
The line, which is supposed to be operational for 24 hours on Sundays, was back up and running by 12:30 p.m., according to DOL spokesperson Kyle Thweatt.
In a note on the website acknowledging that the issue with the phone lines had been resolved, the department advised people filing for unemployment insurance that they have until Friday at 4 p.m. to submit claims.
