Dept. of Workforce Development: Releases information on unemployment data

MADISON – The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today released information related to the most recent unemployment insurance data.

The data includes:

• Total number of claimants who have been paid since March 15, 2020,
• Number of unique claimants in process,
• Number of issues requiring adjudication,
• Number of weekly claims (all programs) received since March 15, 2020,
• Total number of weekly claims in process (includes claims awaiting wage verification, adjudication, etc.), and
• Total number of weekly claims resolved (paid + denied).

The data also contains weekly applications and claims numbers and total received since March 15, 2020:

• Regular UI initial applications received March 15, 2020 to date;
• Regular UI initial applications received prior week only;
• Regular UI weekly claims received March 15, 2020 to date;
• Regular UI weekly claims received prior week only;
• PEUC applications submitted to date;
• PEUC applications submitted prior week only; and
• PUA applications submitted to date.

Unemployment Insurance is a joint state-federal program that provides benefits to eligible workers. Each state administers a separate UI program with state-specific laws and rules, but states must also follow the same guidelines established by federal law. Any answer given on a claim raising a question regarding a person’s eligibility must be fully investigated before benefits may be paid; this is referred to as the adjudication process.

Adjudication is the investigation and resolution of eligibility issues raised on unemployment insurance claims. Adjudication is a manual process that requires interested parties be provided due notice to respond to the eligibility issue. Eligibility issues arise from several places including the initial claim, weekly claim, employer contact, claimant contact, and tips from the public. Under normal conditions, adjudication typically takes 21 days to process.

Regular Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits: If you’re out of work through no fault of your own, and you’ve worked for a covered employer (an employer who pays UI tax) in the last 18 months, you may be eligible for and should apply for regular UI benefits. Regular UI is available for up to 26 weeks (dependent upon an individual’s specific situation).

Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC): A temporary program that provides up to 13 additional weeks of payments to individuals who have exhausted their regular UI benefits.

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA): If you are not eligible for regular UI, you may be eligible for PUA. This is a temporary federal program that provides up to 39 weeks of unemployment benefits to individuals who are not eligible for regular UI such as:

• Individuals who are self-employed;
• Certain independent contractors;
• Individuals with limited recent work history; and
• Other workers not covered by regular UI.

Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC): A temporary emergency increase of $600 per week in unemployment benefits. FPUC provided an additional payment to individuals who are collecting regular UI, PEUC, EB, or PUA. It was automatically added to the weekly benefit rate. FPUC benefits ended on July 25, 2020.

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS CLAIMS STATUS

The information below is for March 15, 2020 – September 5, 2020.

Approximately 509,570 claimants have been paid over $3.62 billion since March 15, 2020.

The Weekly Claims in Process in the table below represents approximately 96,292 unique claimants with around 159,247 issues requiring adjudication. A claimant could have one issue or many holding up one week or many weeks.

* Weekly claims received are not a count of people filing claims.

APPLICATION & CLAIM NUMBERS:

** Applications are not a count of people filing claims. Preliminary counts updated daily.

BENEFIT PAYMENTS:

OTHER DATA:

UI Calls Received – week ending September 5, 2020 – 49,195

Average number of days from application to payment for regular UI – 24