Kansas moves unemployed workers from PUA to other programs, cutting its backlog
CORRECTION: The 10,100 unemployed Kansans who moved from PUA to other programs are already being paid benefits from the labor department. A previous version of this story indicated an incorrect status.
More than half of the Kansans who have been expecting federal unemployment benefits originally meant for the self-employed have been moved to other unemployment programs and are getting paid as of this week, the Kansas Department of Labor announced.
The shift reduces the number of people waiting in a backlog for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, benefits. More than 10,000 impacted workers moved to different federal unemployment programs to receive benefits.
The federal PUA program created unemployment in the pandemic for workers who otherwise wouldn’t receive it, such as self-employed, gig and contract workers. It is also meant to be the benefit of last resort for workers who have exhausted all other options.
The labor department reported a backlog of around 1,500 people waiting on PUA benefits as of Wednesday, down sharply from the previously reported 15,300 people in the PUA backlog.
About 10,100 workers were moved from awaiting PUA to other unemployment programs. Another roughly 3,770 PUA claims are likely fraudulent, according to the labor department.
The shift in what programs unemployed workers can receive benefits under stems from the gap period at the end of last year when unemployment programs from the CARES Act expired before the December COVID-19 relief bill was signed into law, renewing those policies.
“This gap caused a confusing situation for claimants who had exhausted regular state unemployment benefits and the existing extension of benefits through the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program,” the labor department said in a news release.
The second COVID-19 relief bill passed in December, known as the Continued Assistance Act, renewed PEUC so that workers could receive unemployment benefits for a longer period of time. However, the Kansas labor department did not implement that and other extensions until February, as the agency struggled under a 1970s-era IT system that couldn’t keep up throughout much of the pandemic.
During the lapsed period, labor department staff told some unemployed Kansans to apply for PUA, rather than the PEUC extension that was not up and running yet.
“When the Continued Assistance Act was signed Dec. 27, 2020, those claimants became eligible for further PEUC benefits, but development and deployment took time in KDOL’s archaic, legacy IT system,” according to the labor department.
Of the original PUA backlog, 66% of claimants were eligible for other programs before PUA, shifting them to other programs and changing how the agency reports the number of people waiting in its PUA backlog.
The roughly 1,500 people in the backlog still expecting PUA benefits have issues with their claim that still need to be settled, according to the labor department.
The state labor agency has grappled to pay out the surge in unemployment claims since COVID-19 caused layoffs and furloughs across the state last year. At the end of June, backlogs for regular payments and PUA stood at about 25,000 people each.
By January, the labor department eliminated its backlog for regular unemployment benefits. It continued to report that thousands waited for a decision on their PUA benefits, despite previously aiming to also eliminate that backlog in February.
Of all the newly-created federal unemployment programs, PUA has been one of the most difficult for the state to pay out. It creates benefits for a whole new class of workers who otherwise wouldn’t be eligible for unemployment. It took until November for KDOL to complete a software update to work with people seeking PUA.
Unemployed workers across Kansas have had to contend with bills in the meantime. In February, one woman went on a hunger strike outside the labor department in Topeka, protesting the months-long delays in benefits.
The beleaguered labor department has gone through four secretaries in the last year. Gov. Laura Kelly recently signed a bipartisan bill granting the Kansas Legislature greater oversight over the agency ahead of a long-awaited technology modernization process to upgrade the state’s unemployment systems.
To apply for unemployment benefits, visit GetKansasBenefits.gov.
This story was originally published May 14, 2021 at 10:31 AM.
