Pandemic delays revamp of Pennsylvania's unemployment benefits claim system

Pennsylvania’s unemployed eventually will submit compensation claims on a weekly basis instead of every other week.

But that planned shift, and arrival of online dashboard access to unemployment compensation account information, are on hold while the state Department of Labor & Industry catches up with a backlog of pandemic-related claims and works to sort recent fraudulent claims from legitimate ones.

According to Labor & Industry Secretary Jerry Oleksiak, the Unemployment Compensation Benefits Modernization system was scheduled to roll out this fall. But it has been postponed until an undetermined date, so those applying for benefits won’t have to learn new procedures during the covid-19 pandemic.

Also delayed are payments to those who made claims through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program since Sept. 17 and 18, when a spike in new claims set off red flags and prompted the department to bolster anti-fraud measures.

New claims on those dates respectively surged to more than 17,000 and more than 20,000, up from the normal daily rate of about 5,000, according to Susan Dickinson, unemployment compensation benefits policy director. Many of the claims originated from outside Pennsylvania.

“Applications for the program are still being accepted, but payouts are being postponed,” Oleksiak said. Those who applied before the fraud alert aren’t affected, he said.

The department is working with law enforcement agencies and vendor Geographic Solutions Inc. to improve methods for verifying a claimant’s identity.

“We do not want to hold people’s money. This is a lifeline for so many of our citizens,” Oleksiak said. But, “we are fairly certain a number of those claims are fraudulent.”

Labor & Industry paid out more than $1.6 billion of the $2.8 billion in federal dollars it received to provide an extra $300 per week to those with pandemic-related unemployment claims from Aug. 1 through Sept. 5.

“We will continue making retroactive payments for the foreseeable future,” Oleksiak said.

Meanwhile, the department still has to process about 3% of older claims dating from March 15 through Aug. 22, he said.

He said the pandemic-inflated number of claims has prompted his department to expand its staff from 775 employees to more than 1,600.

Since March 15, he said, it has paid nearly $29 billion in regular unemployment benefits and in pandemic-related programs. Federal loans have been secured to bolster the state’s unemployment trust fund, he said.

Dickinson said an online guide to the Benefits Modernization system will be posted before it goes into effect.

Under the new system, she said, people will be able to use the web-based dashboard to file an unemployment claim as well as an appeal.

The system will archive electronic versions of all paper documents sent to claimants. “If anyone misplaces something, we’ll be able to retrieve it,” she said.