Gov. Jay Inslee provides an update on the state's COVID-19 response Thursday, April 16.
With an expected deluge of claims for unemployment assistance as expansion at the federal level from the CARES Act kicks in, Washington Employment Security Commissioner Suzi LeVine is urging those looking to take advantage of the additional benefits to be prepared for what could be a rocky rollout.
Mentioning that for the period between April 5-11 Washington was the third-highest week of initial unemployment insurance claims in the state’s history, LeVine spoke at a press conference with Gov. Jay Inslee Thursday, April 16, about the coming implementation of expanded unemployment eligibility.
While the Employment Security Department (ESD) has already paid out $250 million in benefits since the outbreak started, LeVine acknowledged that “people are still in deep need.” LeVine said that with the expected “tsunami” of new claims starting Sunday, April 19, those looking to apply should be aware of a few things, adding later the department is expecting “several hundred thousand (more claims) in the next two weeks.”
She pointed to her department’s website (esd.wa.gov) which had action alerts providing instructions and information, an eligibility checker allowing applicants to see if they qualify, and an application checklist to allow applicants to know what they need ahead of time before applying.
LeVine anticipated the weekend transition to be the biggest technology update ESD has undertaken to meet the demand stemming from COVID-19 response. Starting with a workday that will take customer service lines offline most of the day Saturday, April 18, the ESD will resume receiving calls the next day, Sunday.
LeVine set some expectations on the rollout of the benefits expansion, explaining that come Sunday, “it’s going to be a very barebones website experience, and it’s going to be a bit clunky.” She gave an example that applicants would likely have a two-step process: filling out the unemployment insurance form that would lead to a notification the applicant was ineligible, then unlocking another link allowing for application for unemployment assistance.
“That’s not the optimal experience and I recognize that, but we wanted to get money in your pockets faster, and that was a tradeoff we were willing to make to do that,” LeVine said.
She later explained that to qualify for the federal expansion of unemployment assistance under the CARES Act — which expands eligibility, increases the weekly benefit amount by $600 and extends the time available for unemployment assistance by 13 weeks — states are required to determine individuals wouldn’t already have been covered by the state’s unemployment insurance.
“The most important thing is to be prepared,” LeVine said, pointing to the aforementioned resources on the ESD website as valuable for preparation.
She added the department has tried to update its website to allow individuals to be more self-sufficient in their seeking of benefits, explaining that of the ten-fold increase in calls compared to before COVID-19, 60 percent of the calls were questions that mostly could be answered on the website.
In anticipation of CARES Act implementation, LeVine said ESD will expand its customer service workforce to more than 500 by this week’s end, and more than 1,000 by the end of next week. She added she’s authorized ESD employees to postpone all non-essential work to focus on wage verification for the anticipated influx of new claims.
LeVine noted that out of the 585,000 claims counted so far, only about 256,000 were paid out. She anticipated that the “lion’s share” of the claims that were ineligible would be paid out under the CARES Act expansion, adding they would also see retroactive pay to their date of eligibility under the expansion.
LeVine said so far benefits recipients have been getting their checks in five to seven days, while those going through direct deposit received their funds in 24 to 48 hours.
In terms of program solvency, LeVine said Washington state has “the strongest unemployment insurance program in the country,” adding that there was $4.7 billion in the program trust fund account going into the COVID-19 crisis. She noted that CARES Act expansion elements were paid out by federal, not state, funds.
“That said, we are drawing heavily on our trust fund,” LeVine added. She said that during the next phases of COVID-19 response at the federal level, ESD’s hope was that backfilling states’ trust funds would be a topic of conversation.
LeVine said over the weekend ESD would be notifying those who had previously applied for benefits but had not been approved to apply again given the expanded eligibility.
Inslee responds to planned protest at Capitol
Questions outside of the upcoming CARES Act implementation ranged from Inslee’s reaction to recent federal guidelines for easing restrictions undertaken to what level of COVID-19 testing capacity was desired by the state. The governor was also asked about a planned protest of his restrictions in Olympia Sunday. It’s being organized by people who believe government-mandated restrictions on gatherings is unconstitutional overreach.
Inslee said protesters are welcome to express their first-amendment rights, but encouraged them to maintain social distancing, something event organizer and Kitsap County Republican Party committeeman Tyler Miller previously said would be in play.
“I will say if a thousand people showed up this weekend, what I would know is that there would be 6,999,000 Washingtonians who care enough about their families to pitch in a little bit to try to prevent our loved ones from dying,” Inslee said, later thanking those who will not be taking part.
“Good on you,” Inslee said to those who will be staying home.
