Pennsylvania’s next governor should increase the transparency and accessibility of the state’s Unemployment Compensation system, ensure prompt payment of benefits, beef up staffing in state call centers and make other changes to help unemployed workers collect timely assistance, according to a report released today from a left-leaning policy organization and an advocacy group for the unemployed.
During the pandemic, the state’s unemployment benefits system struggled with high call volumes that kept the out-of-work from reaching Department of Labor and Industry staff, lengthy backlogs for receiving benefits, and staffing shortages, among other issues.
Advocates rallied outside the governor’s Pittsburgh office downtown Tuesday to call attention to the report, titled, “An Unemployment Insurance Agenda for Pennsylvania’s Next Governor.”
Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro, a Democrat from Montgomery County, will take office in January.
“Pennsylvania's administrative system for delivering unemployment insurance benefits is broken,” said Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Harrisburg-based Keystone Research Center. “That system had been stressed over decades by the elimination of in-person unemployment compensation officers, cutbacks at call centers and the shift of applications for unemployment insurance to dysfunctional online systems. The pandemic laid bare this vulnerability and leaves Pennsylvania now ranked near the bottom for timely delivery of benefits.”
Others at the event spoke from personal experience.
“It's a failed system,” said Bob Snyder, speaking on behalf of union members in the United Steelworkers Local 14034. Snyder said members are laid off regularly and many have been dealing with problems collecting unemployment benefits that are owed to them.
“Please fix the system,” said Pittsburgher Cara Simpson, speaking at the rally. She held an overpayment notice from the state, ordering her to pay back benefits the state says she mistakenly received. Advocates have long said the notices the state sends to people with non-fraudulent overpayments are misleading and overly threatening.
Among the suggestions in the report for Shapiro:
- Appoint a quality team to review the system and make recommendations to help people still owed pandemic-era benefits
- Appoint unemployed representatives to the state’s UC Advisory Council
- Require reports on the status of benefits claimed in the pandemic
- Restore in-person services and hire sufficient staff for call centers
The document released by the Keystone Research Center and Mon Valley Unemployed Committee also makes recommendations to expand the number of people eligible for unemployment assistance and raise the amount of benefits the unemployed can collect.
State Rep. Sara Innamorato, D-Lawrenceville, was one of several local Democratic state House members at the event. She said she and other legislators were swamped with calls from laid-off individuals during the pandemic who struggled to collect unemployment benefits.
“Each and every one of these workers, they are worthy of a publicly funded operational unemployment compensation system that works when they need it. And we have this opportunity now to right the wrongs of the past,” she said.
