VTDigger is posting regular updates on the coronavirus in Vermont on this page. You can also subscribe here for regular email updates on the coronavirus. If you have any questions, thoughts or updates on how Vermont is responding to Covid-19, contact us at coronavirus@vtdigger.org
Update 9:45 p.m.: The Department of Labor said in a press release Wednesday evening that the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program is functional. Applicants can access it at https://labor.vermont.gov/pua.
After 27 years working in medical billing, Barre resident Liz Pettit knows a thing or two about working with large bureaucracies.
But Pettit was quickly stymied when she tried to apply for unemployment insurance as an independent contractor in the early days of Vermont’s Covid-19 crisis.
Although the Vermont Department of Labor briefly advised the self-employed and independent contractors on its website that they should apply for unemployment insurance under the new federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program, or PUA, that notice disappeared from the site. Like an estimated 30,000 or 40,000 other self-employed Vermonters, Pettit searched the site in vain for a way to apply.
“On the days I’ve had nothing to do, which is a lot more than normal, that’s what I am doing: I’m scouring” the site for information about unemployment relief for the self-employed, said Pettit, who works out of her home in Barre. “I’ve gone back to look for it to see if I’m not going crazy. It was there; it’s gone now. I’m sure I’m not the only person who is frustrated by this.”
Gov. Phil Scott declared a state of emergency in Vermont on March 13. Weeks later, the self-employed still haven’t received unemployment insurance. But the DOL has promised that the PUA application process will be in place by Thursday morning at the latest.
On Tuesday, the DOL held one of its virtual town hall meetings to answer questions about the system, which had to be built from scratch for a bureaucracy that has never had any way of paying unemployment insurance to the self-employed before.
“This has been a long time coming,” Cameron Wood, director of unemployment insurance for the DOL, told about 300 people signed up for the public call. “There are a lot of anxious people out there.”
Wood promised that the PUA program would go live on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning. When it does, he said, the self-employed will be able to file a claim and then “seamlessly transition” to another site where they can sign up to receive the $600 per week promised to the unemployed under the CARES Act passed by Congress in March.
The Vermont unemployment claims will be paid within a day or two of successful filing, Wood said.
The Vermont unemployment system has been plagued with backlogs, computer crashes and delays since the governor in March closed non-essential businesses in a series of executive orders and amendments and then ordered people to stay at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A system that was handling about 500 claims a week was unequipped to serve the more than 80,000 Vermonters who have tried to file for unemployment insurance in the last several weeks. Interim DOL Commissioner Mike Harrington blamed the state’s decades-old mainframe computer and restrictive federal regulations for the delays. Because so many of the online claims required follow-up calls, the department brought on retired employees, trained many more from other agencies, and strengthened its ties to an independent contractor, resulting in 150 additional phone staff.
On Monday, the state Treasurer’s Office sent $10 million in $1,200 checks to tide over the more than 8,000 Vermonters whose claims still hadn’t been cleared.
The delays with the PUA program weren’t connected to the problems with Vermont’s traditional unemployment insurance. The DOL had to create an entirely new system for the PUA, Harrington has said.
“We’re confident the new system is much more user-friendly,” Wood said Tuesday. “Claimants can do a lot more of the filing themselves. There’s extreme self-service functionality built into this program. Any issues can be resolved relatively quickly, unlike with our current unemployment insurance system.”
The self-employed must submit their 2019 tax return as proof of their income. If they don’t, they’re eligible for the minimum payment of about $190 per week. The maximum is a little over $500 per week. Wood recommended that those who haven’t filed their 2019 taxes yet submit their return when they do file, to have their benefit amount adjusted.
Claimants who don’t take a salary or who reported a loss last year will be eligible for the minimum payment. Claims will be payable retroactive to the date the applicant had to close a business or stop working.
Wood estimated that about 7,500 Vermonters have already filed an unemployment insurance claim, and when asked for their employer, said “self.” Those people will get an email from the department when the system is ready for them to finish filing.
The $600 from the CARES Act will be paid through the week ending July 25, and the state PUA program is available for up to 39 weeks for those who are still out of a job.
“It will really depend on when you, as a self-employed individual, go back to work,” Wood said.
Pettit, who opened her own medical billing company in January 2018, estimated she has lost about half of her work since the crisis began.
“I’ve done medical billing for 27-some-odd years; I’m used to red tape,” said Pettit. “I know that we’re that pink elephant, that we never were eligible in the first place. But there’s only so much understanding and patience that is going to come along.”
The DOL is holding another town hearing Thursday on the PUA program.
