Expanded unemployment benefits have taken effect in recent weeks, but there are a number of challenges preventing the Indiana Department of Workforce Development from getting those payments out quickly, according to department commissioner Fred Payne.
During state officials’ COVID-19 press conference Wednesday, he once again blamed most of the delays on the need to protect against fraud. “Specifically, 71 percent of current [Pandemic Unemployment Assistance] claimants have fraud indicators that require additional investigation,” Payne said. “This means about three out of every four PUA claims requires some sort of additional processing, which could cause those claims to go well beyond 21 days of processing.”
But many of those who can verify their identities have apparently had trouble doing it. “ID.me is one of our vendors that’s verifying the identification for claimants, and ID.me has let us know that they, too, have been bombarded with fraudulent attacks, as well,” Payne explained. “So there’s a little bit of delay there with them.”
Payne said generating the necessary 1099 forms could also be a source of delays.
During Wednesday’s press conference, Payne outlined some of the federal unemployment programs that were recently renewed. Hoosiers collecting regular unemployment benefits are eligible for a $300-a-week add-on through March 14, and payments have been going out since January 8.
Unemployment benefits for gig workers and independent contractors, called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, were also extended through March 14, but more documentation requirements were added. They opened up to most eligible claimants last Friday and to additional applicants yesterday. Additionally, the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which extends unemployment eligibility beyond the normal limit, also came back into effect last Friday.
“Since the release of the modified PUA and PEUC programs on January 22, we’ve paid 77,000 individual claimants on those programs, totaling over $125 million,” Payne said.
Meanwhile, Payne reported that Indiana’s unemployment rate continues to trend downward, going from a peak of 16.9 percent in April to 4.3 percent in December. On top of that, he said the state’s labor participation rate is similar to where it was a year ago, at 64 percent.
