Meuser hosts over-the-phone town-hall, answering unemployment questions

U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser held another over-the-phone town-hall meeting Tuesday evening, answering questions from constituents in the 9th U.S. Congressional district specifically about unemployment benefits in the wake of COVID-19.

Meuser, R-Dallas, was joined on the call by Secretary of Labor and Industry Gerard Oleksiak and Susan Dickinson, director of the Office of Unemployment Compensation Benefits Policy.

Meuser began the call giving a brief recap of things done by Congress in response to the global health crisis, namely the $1,200 stimulus payments given to many Americans, in addition to an extra $600 weekly for those receiving unemployment benefits.

Oleksiak commented about “historic” numbers currently being processed, with the state going from a historic low of unemployment to approximately 1.7 million Pennsylvanians applying for unemployment, something Oleksiak called “something we’ve never seen before.”

Oleksiak acknowledged that the process has been somewhat slow-going due to the crush of new applicants, but said the state is doing everything it can, including bringing on 500 staffers from other agencies within the Department of Labor and Industry and other state departments to help with the backlog.

“We have done all we can to respond t these unprecedented challenges that we are facing,” Oleksiak said.

Many of the questions on the call came from constituents who applied for unemployment a few weeks ago but have not yet received any further information about their benefits.

Dickinson said that many of these slowdowns are caused by small errors in filing that create discrepancies between the filing and Social Security information about the individual. She said these discrepancies are often as simple as someone named William filing under the name “Bill,” which causes the computer system to flag that filing for review by an employee, which takes some time.

She also made it clear that, regardless of when the filing is eventually processed, approved recipients will receive back payments for the time period they have been unemployed, which includes the extra $600 given weekly.

This $600 bonus will automatically be applied to any unemployment payments nationwide that are marked for the payment weeks starting on April 4, going until the end of July, she said.