Jobless agency wrestles with high use, adds workers, launches new website
The Arizona Department of Economic Security continues to field a surge of unemployment claims and inquiries tied to coronavirus layoffs and has added more staff to deal with the situation.
“As we continue to receive an unprecedented number of initial and continued claims, we have been adding additional staff across (the unemployment-insurance division) to process applications, make determination and issue benefits,” said Brett Bezio, a department spokesman in an email.
“We have expanded our team substantially to nearly 500, with an additional 100 starting next week, and we will continue to grow our team to ensure we can provide applicants with the assistance they need.”
Bezio said DES also has contracted with a private-sector call center company to assist with record-breaking call volume, bringing the total number of employees answering phones to more than 220.
“For comparison, prior to the pandemic we had 120 staff across the UI team, with 20 answering phones,” he said.
The department earlier this week said its new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance website was scheduled to go live this week, allowing jobless individuals to provide information to confirm their eligibility and to determine weekly benefits.
Tuesday night, the PUA online system went live, but encountered some technical difficulties, according to a DES tweet.
The site was working by early Wednesday and individuals eligible for PUA benefits were able to access the system to provide information needed to confirm their ongoing eligibility and determine benefits, Bezio said.
More information is available at des.az.gov/pua. Individuals can access the portal at pua.azdes.gov.
The federal CARES Act signed into law March 27 created the Pandemic program, which provides jobless benefits for certain people who aren’t eligible for regular unemployment insurance including those who have exhausted their benefits previously, are self-employed, are seeking part-time work or lack sufficient work history.
New applicants may need to file a regular unemployment claim based
on their circumstances. If they are denied regular jobless benefits, they were able to begin filing a PUA claim this week.
On Monday, the Department of Economic Security said it started making payments to 165,000 Pandemic claimants, with checks mailed to people who filed an initial claim for benefits between Feb. 2 and May 2 and who didn’t meet eligibility for regular benefits.
Under the Pandemic program, they stand to receive up to $240 a week in state benefits, for up to 39 weeks, and $600 a week from the federal government between the weeks of March 29 and July 25.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, DES had received roughly 39,000 PUA claims from people who logged into the system to update information and confirm ongoing eligibility, he said. They are part of the 165,000 determined eligible for PUA previously.
The department earlier this week noted a problem for people who received state unemployment benefits between May 7 and May 11 but didn’t receive the additional $600 weekly benefit for Pandemic unemployment provided by the federal government. The department has worked to correct this error.
“Claimants have begun to receive the $600, and payments will continue through Friday,” Bezio said.