Coronavirus CT: Unemployment Claim Processing On 3 Week Delay

HARTFORD, CT — The state Department of Labor is struggling to keep up with unemployment claim processing amid an unprecedented amount of filings related to the new coronavirus.

The department is seeing 20 times the average number of claims being filed per day, said Commissioner Kurt Westby. He couldn’t give an exact count of how many new claims are being filed per day because some are duplicate filings.

The state’s filing system only allows for submitting a claim a week, so the first week of numbers during the surge of claims was accurate, but beyond that there are many duplicate claims,” Westby said.

“There is some concerns among some people that if we put out exact numbers everyday….might be used by speculators to speculate on the stock market,” he said.

Around 99,000 unemployment claims were made in Connecticut between March 13 and 23, according to the Hartford Courant.

The department is bringing back retirees, paying overtime and is trying to get state employees who have moved on to other opportunities within the state to come back to unemployment claim processing. Claims processing is a specialty area that deals with both federal and state laws.

The processing delay is at least three weeks at this point, said Deputy Commissioner Darryl Dudzinski. Before the coronavirus wave it took an average of between one and three business days.

Claims should be filed online because the American Job Centers have been closed.

The department is urging employers who are temporarily laying off employees to notify the department of the shutdown and to provide employees with separation packages that contain information on how to file for benefits. Doing those two things will help automate claim processing, Westby said.

Dudzinski urged filers to select direct deposit for benefits. It typically takes two business days to get benefit money deposited once a claim is approved, he said. The debit card option usually takes about 10 business days because the card must be created and mailed out.