AZ jobless to get $730M

Nearly 100,000 Arizonans who have lost jobs during the pandemic are about to receive thousands of dollars each in jobless benefits, DES says.

Nearly 100,000 Arizonans who have lost jobs during the pandemic are about to finally receive thousands of dollars each in jobless benefits, according to the Department of Economic Security.

DES Director Michael Wisehart said Thursday that the department has verified 90,000 applications to the “pandemic unemployment assistance,” or PUA, program that provides jobless pay for contractors, self-employed and other people who don’t qualify for regular unemployment insurance.

Many of the people who applied for PUA in Arizona got an initial payment from the program in May, then had their accounts flagged for potential fraud. Some have waited 10 weeks or more without pay for DES to verify their claim.

They could see all of that back pay deposited into bank accounts Friday, Wisehart said.

“They will see the entirety of what they applied for and certified,” Wisehart said.

Deposits as high as $8,400 expected

Congress approved the PUA program to address widespread unemployment from the pandemic. It roughly matches unemployment in each state but with broader eligibility.

Weekly benefits were as much as $840 a week until late July, and are now $540 a week. Someone missing 10 weeks of claims could therefore see a deposit of $8,400 before taxes.

The department is paying $730 million in delayed PUA payments, meaning the average payment is in fact more than $8,000.

It didn’t appear that deposits had hit bank accounts as of Thursday evening, based on a scan of social media groups and chat groups focused on PUA applications in Arizona where thousands of users discuss issues with the program.

Wisehart said that he understands the frustration many people have had trying to reach DES through jammed phone lines, only to continue waiting weeks for their payments.

His advice for people waiting on payments from DES is “don’t give up.”

“Oh, absolutely don’t give up,” Wisehart said. “We are going to get you paid. We apologize tremendously for the delays.”

People who have legitimate claims to unemployment or PUA need to file weekly certifications for the weeks when they don’t work or work part time only to keep their claims active.

“File your weekly (certifications), because when we pay you, we are going to pay you the full amount you deserve and are eligible for,” Wisehart said. “Every single one of my team members feels the pain when we can’t get payments out to eligible individuals.”

Nearly 500,000 get unemployment

Arizona has about 380,000 people currently collecting either traditional unemployment insurance or PUA, with the numbers about evenly split, Wisehart said. The number fluctuates week to week as some people lose jobs while others find work.

But once the 90,000 frozen accounts are paid, that number will be closer to 500,000 with more people on PUA than traditional unemployment.

And clearing out those claims will free up hundreds of DES workers to focus on the remaining claims that have problems.

A week ago, DES had about 37,000 unread applications for regular unemployment and has gotten that down to 20,000 or less, Wisehart said.

“We are going to continue to aggressively chip away at that backlog,” he said.

Many fraudulent claims remain

DES still has about 900,000 claims for PUA that still need to be reviewed, but most of those are likely fraudulent, he said.

DES screened about 1 million PUA claims and those that clearly were legitimate are getting paid this week, while some legitimate claims undoubtedly remain in the pool of 900,000 that are questionable and need further review, he said.

The department has received about 2 million total claims for benefits in recent months and went into the pandemic with a workforce in the state of about 3.4 million.

“While we know unemployment is bad, that doesn’t make mathematical sense at all,” he said.

While DES has been aggressive at trying to root out fraudulent claims, Wisehart said the department, like in other states, has likely paid fraudulent claims.

Out of nearly $10 billion paid, if 5% are fraudulent, it would be $500 million paid to scammers, he said.

“That is probably not an unreasonable estimate,” he said.

DES has hired about 1,000 people since the pandemic began to help address the staggering workload, and about 900 of the new hires remain on the job. DES also contracts with a call center that has 275 people answering Arizonans’ calls.

Additional $300 retroactive

President Donald Trump used an executive order to offer states $300 a week from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which people on unemployment and PUA got this week.

Arizona was among the first states to get that money to applicants.

The $300 weekly supplement is retroactive, and people who were out of work the weeks of Aug. 1 and Aug. 8 should also see that back pay this week on their benefits, Wisehart said.