Workers navigate unreliable unemployment benefits
Dolores Israel has been receiving unemployment benefits for nine months, ever since the university where she works as a subcontractor in the food services switched to remote learning.
The unemployment system worked like it was supposed to, she said, with benefits arriving on time and officials switching her automatically between different programs set up to extend the traditional jobless benefits.
That kept some money flowing while she waited to hear from her school whether students would be returning to campus and whether her job would be coming back with them.
“I don’t know if the university is going to open up. … If we shut down again, can I open up a new claim?” Ms. Israel, 52, from Montgomery County, said. “If I have to open a new claim, where are they going to get money from because I’ve been collecting unemployment for nine months?”
Ms. Israel was one of 500,000 Pennsylvanians who were at risk of losing jobless benefits when two federal unemployment programs were set to expire this week. Congress spent weeks debating another stimulus package and came to an agreement just days before the deadline. On Sunday, Congress hashed out an agreement on legislation that would extend the unemployment programs and temporarily add $300 to jobless benefits for 11 weeks.
Without an extension, Pennsylvanians were sure to lose out on benefits that state officials and industry experts said were sustaining people’s ability to buy groceries, pay rent and put money back into the economy. But even a short-term extension might not be enough to fix the programs that many say have been unreliable.
“We weren’t getting it for so long that I kind of discounted it,” said Kitty Paul, a wedding photojournalist from Avalon who applied for a federal unemployment program at the beginning of the pandemic but struggled to receive the funds consistently.
“If it doesn’t continue and I don’t get it … I’m thinking along the lines of that’s not secure for me because I went so long without it,” she said. “In my mind, it’s like I have to make my own way. I have to find an income.”
From weddings to plant shops
After weeks of avoiding the unemployment system because of the confusion and frustrations with long response times and busy phone signals, Ms. Paul applied for benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program this spring.
The PUA program extended aid to gig workers, independent contractors, those who were self-employed and others who were not previously eligible for jobless benefits.
Ms. Paul, who has run her own wedding photography business for more than 10 years, said she received benefits for about a month before they stopped without explanation. Later, she received a check with backpay for some of those missing weeks, again with no explanation.
To make up for the lack of income, Ms. Paul said her family relied on savings, funds from a disaster loan she was able to secure for her business and revenue from a plant shop she started with her husband amid the pandemic.
“I’m trying to turn this into enough of an income to get us by until our next weddings start to happen again,” Ms. Paul said. “Which is scary because they might start to get rescheduled.”
Normally, she books up to 35 weddings a year. This year, only about six events ended up happening.
Earlier this month, Ms. Paul was planning a day of photo shoots, another strategy to bring in some extra dollars, but decided to cancel at the last minute as COVID-19 cases continued to spike. “I just can’t encourage people to come out of the house when we shouldn’t be.”
Making do on 50% less
Pennsylvania has paid out $32.2 billion in unemployment benefits since March 15, the weekend when many businesses started to close to the public to help prevent the spread of the virus.
The state has processed 98% of the claims it has received for traditional unemployment between March 15 and Dec. 7 — the remaining 2% equals more than 45,000 people.
State officials have hired more staff and invested in tech to handle the surge in claims. They say they will be able to respond to 8,000 calls and 11,000 emails per day in the new year.
More than 400,000 workers in Pennsylvania rely on PUA, the new system set up for gig workers and the self- employed, while 109,000 workers receive benefits through the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which extends traditional benefits by 13 weeks.
In Pennsylvania, claimants are eligible to receive benefits for up to 26 weeks in a claim year. The state’s high unemployment level also triggered its own extended benefits program that provides another 13 weeks of benefits.
“The problem is, a lot of people when you lose your job, you’re trying to make do on 50% less of what you had and now the people who are at the end of the extension have been trying to do that for a long time now,” said Sarah Damaske, a professor at Penn State University.
Pennsylvania jobless benefits equal about half of the worker’s salary.
Under the federal government’s CARES Act, eligible workers received an additional $600 each week from March through July through the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. After that program lapsed, President Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating $300 in supplemental jobless benefits, but the funds only lasted a few weeks.
“Those who had any savings have presumably used a lot of those savings up and there’s not a lot in reserve left anymore,” Ms. Damaske said.
In July, about 41% of households that had lost work and had not
received unemployment benefits said they would not be able to pay an unexpected $400 expense, according to a report from the Federal Reserve.
Of the respondents who had lost work but had also received benefits, 54% said they could afford the $400 expense.
The same survey found 76% of respondents who had received benefits were able to pay their bills in full that month, while only 54% of those who did not receive the funds reported the same.
The impacts of job losses have not been equal across all demographics, Ms. Damaske said. People of color, women and older workers have been hit the hardest, according to an analysis of unemployment data by a group of Penn State researchers.
For the week of Oct. 10, for example, the unemployment rate was 13.4% among Black workers, 10.2% among Hispanic workers and 5.1% among white workers.
At the peak of unemployment claims in May, 22.3% of women filed for unemployment claims compared to 19.3% of men.
“If those unemployment benefits are lapsing, it’s not just the workers who are at risk, it’s also their families,” Ms. Damaske said. “A lot of attention has been paid to how women are being pulled out of the labor market because of child care issues, but we’re also seeing them pushed out because their jobs are gone.”