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Virginians continue to struggle with unemployment backlog and concerns

Rebecca Barnabi

Virginia Employment CommissionIn the United States, Virginia had among the largest decreases in layoffs in June 2022.

According to the August Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, the rate of job quitting was up by a third from five years ago. June saw an increase of 12,000 job openings in Virginia compared to May, but remained below the total number of openings reached in March 2022.

The United States job openings amount decreased by 605,000 in June to 10.7 million. The BLS survey reports that the number of job openings decreased in 19 states and increased in only two.

Virginia’s job openings rate was 7.4 percent in June, but this is little comfort for Virginians still waiting to receive benefits from the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC).

“When the governor came into office in January, the VEC had a backlog of 86,546 appeals. More decisions for appeals were written in the first five months of this year than in all of the previous year,” VEC Commissioner Carrie Roth said.

‘It was just iffy if you could log in’

According to the Roth, duplicate and non appeals have been removed “to better serve true appellants. As a result of the progress of eliminating or reducing other backlogs, we do continue to see a significant number of new appeals. We have a significant effort around the appeals backlog and our team is continuing developing, testing and implementing new processes, such as block scheduling, to increase the number of hearings being held in one day.”

Viviana Hogan of Harrisonburg worked for Aces$, a division of Medicaid, when she lost her job in September 2021 because she was full-time caretaker of her daughter, and her daughter died.

Hogan said she applied for unemployment in November.

“I didn’t even know it was an option until [VAIL] let me know,” Hogan said.

VAIL is Valley Associates for Independent Living. She said she did not anticipate any problems although she had heard of Virginians experiencing challenges in receiving benefits. She thought enough time had passed since COVID-19 that the issues had been resolved.

Hogan received one payment in December 2021 before the VEC website crashed.

“It was just iffy if you could log in,” she said.

Without a PIN, she could not file her weekly claim by phone, only online. She said VEC kept telling her she would receive a PIN by mail. Her PIN was not mailed to her until March 2022.

“Also, the whole onslaught of grieving my child. I let it go a month. It was the furthest thing from my mind,” Hogan said.

Hogan’s daughter was diagnosed with a terminal illness at age 12 and told she would live to age 14. She was 20 when she died Sept. 1, 2021.

“She fought hard and broke all the rules. It was time for her to be free of all that pain,” Hogan said.

By March 2022, Hogan’s case was closed because of inactivity on her online account.

When she received a PIN, she was owed 14 weeks, and although she was about to start a new job, she was told by VEC to call each week and claim to receive benefits. After six weeks, however, the system said she had no weeks left and her account was closed soon after again.

Hogan is an emergency dispatcher working from home for ADT.

“And here is almost September, and I still haven’t received [unemployment benefits],” Hogan said.

She said she almost lost her home before getting a job with ADT.

“My credit got shot, my life got turned upside down on top of losing my child,” Hogan said.

Her case was finally reopened, but was held up again because Hogan changed bank account information to receive direct deposit of her unemployment benefits. She is owed nearly $4,000.

“We’re coming up on a year,” Hogan said. She said Virginians cannot rely on unemployment benefits.

‘Disheartening and frustrating’

Seva Raskin lived in Texas for five years before moving to Williamsburg, Va.

“I thought the government services were bad there,” she said.

She worked remotely in Williamsburg for a company based in Texas and was laid off July 1. She applied for Virginia unemployment benefits within a couple days.

“I was just dumbfounded with the process,” she said.

She was declined benefits without an explanation until she tried calling the commission three times and finally got someone on the phone. She was told VEC did not have her tax records. Raskin said that is because she had just started the job then lost it on July 1.

Raskin said the commission declining benefits without an explanation does not help unemployed residents know what they need to appeal the decline.

Raskin said that if the commission were two or three months behind, she could understand.

“Dealing with VEC is disheartening and frustrating,” she said.

She got through her time of unemployment by using her savings to pay rent and buy food, but would like to repay her savings by receiving unemployment benefits. Raskin said that Virginia residents must pay their taxes on time.

“It’s just not functioning. It’s not a functioning government service,” Raskin said of VEC.

Still behind

Earlier this year, the VEC was ordered to improve customer service and decrease the backlog of claims. On Feb. 21, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in a press release a nearly 89 percent decrease in backlog. “This is the first step in the governor’s day one game plan commitment to fix the VEC and put government to work for Virginians,” the press release stated.

From Jan. 15 to Feb. 21, the backlog of employment separation reports was reduced from 246,273 to 27,728 and unpaid pending claims reduced from 24,887 to 15,846.

However, Raskin said she appealed the decline of her benefits and was told appeals are backed up to October 2021. She must wait 10 to 12 months for her opportunity to appeal. Thankfully, Raskin began a new job on August 22, but she wonders how unemployed residents with children get by waiting for their benefits. She still hopes to receive compensation for about a month of wages while she was unemployed.

“They should be paying me a month. I didn’t have income for a month,” she said.

Youngkin said Virginians deserve a responsive, efficient and customer-focused system. “On day one, my administration launched the VEC transformation effort with an initial focus on reducing the backlog and we are starting to see encouraging initial results. We have a lot more work to do, but I want Virginians to know we are serious about making the VEC, along with all other state agencies, work for them.”

Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca J. Barnabi is the national editor of Augusta Free Press. A graduate of the University of Mary Washington, she began her journalism career at The Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star. In 2013, she was awarded first place for feature writing in the Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia Awards Program, and was honored by the Virginia School Boards Association’s 2019 Media Honor Roll Program for her coverage of Waynesboro Schools. Her background in newspapers includes writing about features, local government, education and the arts.