Most unemployed Hoosiers have been able to get their first unemployment check within three weeks, according to Indiana Department of Workforce Development Commissioner Fred Payne.
“We continue to average 80 to 85 percent of claims going from filing to payment within our average of 21 days,” Payne said during state officials’ COVID-19 press conference Friday. “We’ve done this by utilizing our focus plan on maximizing automation and technology and increased staff and maturing that staff to handle the more difficult claims. Those claims that go beyond 21 days require more experienced adjudicators to work through the processing.”
Payne reported that almost $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance benefits have been paid out in Indiana since March. More than 26,000 initial unemployment claims were filed the week ending May 23, down from a peak of over 139,000 in March.
“We’ll continue to work through all claims filed, make payments to every eligible Hoosier, but we’ll also continue to help Hoosiers seeking additional training and jobs, so we can insure that we come out of this pandemic in a better position than we came into it,” Payne added.
Indiana’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate is currently at 16.9 percent.
